attitude indicator

News outlets report 59-year-old pilot Gary Lee Huttleston told air traffic control that he had “lost his attitude indicator” just before radar contact and communication was lost.

According to the report, the plane dropped and crashed after Spaulding heard Cabaud ask about the plane’s attitude indicator.

When you drop down to 500 feet above the oft-stormy sea to inspect a ship, you depend almost entirely on the radar altimeter and attitude indicator because there is no horizon, and you have absolutely no idea whether you are too close to little waves or adequately high above really big waves—it all looks the same.