Article: Vertigo in the Void: Flying personal planes is safer than ever, but danger can strike instantly.(Nation)(Brief Article)

For pilots, the technical term is "spatial disorientation,'' a kind of vertigo that may have engulfed John F. Kennedy Jr. during his final moments. Wrapped in darkness over the ocean, with thick haze blocking out stars, city lights and what little moonlight there was to mark the horizon, Kennedy likely felt the crippling sensation that leaves pilots clawing for a sense of what is up, down or level. At that moment, little mistakes in the cockpit can compound exponentially, and life-or-death reactions must come in split seconds. Many pilots have felt the sensation at one time or another, and they watched last week's sad drama off Martha's Vineyard with a special kind of ...

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