Riporto di seguito il resoconto apparso sulla rivista in oggetto, organo ufficiale di AOPA Svizzera, dove viene descritto un caso di incidente per ingresso involontario in IFR da parte di pilota abilitato VFR.
Il caso viene sottoposto ai lettori di AOPA Report Position affinché si rendano conto di come una leggerezza considerata banale e anche abituale come non compiere un brief meteo estremamente approfondito possa essere causa di eventi fatali.

Anch'io, personalmente, ritengo questo caso molto significativo ed istruttivo, al di là della tragicità dell'evento, perché testimonia cosa significhi un brief meteo ben fatto, che fa parte di una pianificazione altrettanto ben fatta e che dà un significato profondo alle ore ed ore spese a pianificare e a leggere bollettini prima di mettersi in volo.

Particolarmente interessante, secondo me, il punto dove si dice che per potere depositare un FPL il pilota avrebbe prima dovuto dimostrare di avere compiuto un brief meteo.
Questa è un'ottima abitudine diffusa negli US ma non solo: anche in Germania e in Austria mi è capitato di dovere superare una vera e propria interrogazione su NOTAM, TAF, METAR e tutto il resto prima che il mio FPL fosse accettato, oltre che discutere sulla rotta prescelta, indicandone i perché e i percome.
Purtroppo, nel caso di questo incidente ciò non è accaduto e il risultato è una vita spezzata.

Spero possa servire per fare meditare su cosa significa decollare senza una accurata pianificazione, senza un adeguato briefing meteo e cosa significa giocare troppo vicino alle nuvole senza le necessarie abilitazioni che, come è noto, possono essere rilasciate solo da una scuola abilitata all'insegnamenti IFR.

A Cessna 182M airplane that crashed in eastern Livingston Parish last month flew into increasingly cloudy conditions at night before the plane hit the ground at high speed, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report issued by March 12th 2009.
Three experts agreed Wednesday the details presented in the report may point to pilot, encountering the classic scenario of spatial disorientation in cloudy conditions that can often send pilots awry without close reliance on their instruments.
“The evidence that I’m aware of points to that.
In my opinion, it’s the most likely scenario that took place,” said the president of the Ocala, Florida based Mackey International and an aviation safety expert.
The NTSB report called the conditions marginal for flying by sight, and the pilot had a private pilot’s certificate, which does not include an instrument rating, said Tom Latson, NTSB investigator-incharge.
The report said he was flying under visual flight rules but did not file a flight plan, which would have required him to show he got a weather briefing before takeoff.
Latson said investigators are still trying to determine if the pilot got a briefing.
The NTSB report is preliminary and its facts are subject to change. Investigators are still gathering data and considering a variety of possible scenarios that led to the fatal crash, NTSB officials have said.
The plane had left Slidell Airport at 11:15 p.m. headed northwest for Marksville, where the family was to attend a sport parachute meet the next day, the NTSB said.
Just 15 minutes before in Slidell, skies were clear, wind was 8 mph and visibility was 8 miles, said Phil Grigsby, meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s New Orleans/Baton Rouge office.
But he said clouds were moving in pretty quickly out of the west across southeastern Louisiana about that time of night Feb. 27 and became heavier farther west.
Peter Leffe, a California-based aviation safety expert certified in accident investigation, said that at night, pilots can find themselves all of sudden in the clouds.
At night, it’s very difficult, sometimes impossible to see clouds,” Leffe said. Weather in Baton Rouge at 11:45 p.m. — the time of the crash — had broken clouds at 1,500 feet and overcast clouds, which completely covered the sky, at 2,100 feet. At 11:34 p.m., the pilot asked air traffic controllers to follow his flight as he said he planned to pull up to 3,000 feet.
After flying at 3,000 feet for a few minutes, radar data was lost at 11:41 p.m. with the last radar hit showing the plane in a right turn at 1,600 feet, the NTSB report says.