The first thing I noticed was the pilot, wife, and daughter were all plus sized, at least 200 lbs average maybe. Though it wasn't mentioned, it appeared he had new scars on his face, pretty severe ones, are there shoulder harnesses in most 172's? Without dumping on the guy, he apparently had time to make a speech to his family before impact, but not enough time to turn the hell around. The Today show lady doing the interview for some reason didn't ask him about continued VFR flight into deteriorating conditions, his weight and balance calculations, his training in mountain flying, useful fuel remaining, etc, etc. I'm sure he will have an opportunity to talk about this, with the FAA, and rightfully so. As someone who has no artificial horizon, turn indicator or other even basic aids to poor viz flying, I don't get it. A simple 180 solves a lot of problems, for me anyway. Anyone hear what his flying background was, TT etc.?
Someone not a pilot watching this interview would for sure have gone away with the impression that small planes in the mountains are deadly. The only thing I liked about it was the way they referred to "a remote section of IDAHO", like it was on the moon or something!
No surprise in any of this of course, and it could have been much worse. BTW, the pilot was a Californian 
JUST KIDDING.....
