Man tries to kill mom with kamikaze flight into house
AFP/Getty Images
"Are you home mum? I'm just about to drop in."
Those words Konrad Schmidt said over the phone to his mother, Rosemary Schmidt, Sunday were possibly the last ones he ever said. He was calling from the cockpit of a twin-engine small airplane, which he flew into the window of her first-floor bedroom, killing himself, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported.
Rosemary Schmidt survived what police characterized as an attack on the house in Oberhallau, Switzerland. Konrad Schmidt, a qualified pilot, had been feuding with his mother for a long time after his parents' marriage ended, which was followed by his father's death from cancer, the police told The Telegraph.
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Konrad Schmidt suffered from depression and also had financial problems, the police said.
The mother's neighbors told the Swiss newspaper Blick that the 47-year-old man flew past the house three times as though he was practicing for his final descent, The Telegraph reported.
Blick quoted one neighbor saying, "It was like seeing a mini rerun of 9/11."
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The FAA wants General Aviation in America to be like Europe which is practially none existent and very very very expensive. I am sure they will need more regulations now, which they can pass themselves without going to Congress, to further restrict pilots and deny medical cerficates.
The number of pilots on the US is down form 800,000 in 1980 to 202,000 in 2010. And at the same time this is happening, we are give tax breaks to aircraft manufacturing to build planes that we dont have pilots to fly.
Aviation industry in America, which is one of the few exporting industries left, cannot be healthy with pilots on the ground, stripped of licenses, and heavy regulations thwarting flight.
1. It's a picture of SOMEONE ELSE'S airplane and the N-number identifies it -- and the owner.
2. He was flying a TWIN engine airplane - that means TWO engines. The plane you're showing has ONE engine. Duh.
3. EDITOR, please!