This is what airline pilots USED to know.

[caraher]

81. A nice yarn, but

my BS meter spiked a little and I tried to track its source. It seems to have sprung up a few weeks ago, mainly on web sites I wouldn't link to on DU. This would have to be a pretty old story; the "35 years ago" reference might have been appropriate in the '60s but not recent decades.

As it turns out, G. C. Kehmeier was a 48-year-old United pilot in 1965 when he set a 727 on the ground several hundred feet short of the runway in Salt Lake City, killing 41 passengers. He also apparently wrote an article on Jeppeson for Air Line Pilot in 1994. He lived in Denver, which might be consistent with knowing the streets. Kehmeier apparently died in 2003 at age 85. He did some non-aviation writing; I ran across a piece called "The Lions of Delos" about that Greek island, and he churned out a bit of glurge you can listen to titled "Grandfather's Economic Lessons."

Rodney Stich's book "Unfriendly Skies" mentions both Kehmeier and Crismon. Crismon was a major figure in the history of United and manager of Denver operations in 1965, but Stich mentions him in the context of obstructing his efforts as an FAA official to investigate what the FAA felt was inadequate training of its pilots - including Kehmeier. Stich directly blames United's poor training for the Salt Lake City accident, and condemns United and the ALPA for vilifying Kehmeier as a scapegoat rather than admit they'd failed to correct his high-sink-rate descents, one of which caused the fatal crash.

So it seems possible Kehmeier did write this piece; but if so, it's a bit of a whitewash.