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David Riggs?

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
I've never heard of David Riggs before this week. Apparently he's been working, or “working”, depending on who you ask, as a stunt pilot for some years, but has had some “run-ins” with the “authorities” over various aviation related matters, and lost his license in the US. Whatever the history, it would appear he has come to a tragic end in an airshow in China this past month. More tragic, is that his passenger, an 19 year Chinese woman working as his translator, was also killed.

Whoever started this web site appears to have been passionately devoted to exposing Mr. Riggs for some time:

http://www.aviationcriminal.com/
 
CWOJackson said:
Wow, that is one seriously angry web site! It would be interesting to know what Riggs did to them.
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I'm curious too. For somebody to have that big of an axe to grind that they would set up a website to expose some guy as a fraud and a criminal, me thinks they had a really bad experience with the guy and I'll betcha it involved money.
 
theres alot of information out there about this guy,i believe its this moth flying mag talks about him aswell..might be another mag...im not sure he was a criminal..but he sure was careless
 
Daveroo said:
.im not sure he was a criminal..but he sure was careless
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Everything I've ever heard about him indicates that he was basically a flying con artist.

A couple of years ago, Riggs started making claims that he'd started an air racing series that sounded like an amazingly reckless version of the Red Bull series, including claims that several prominent individuals within the airshow and aerobatics community were involved and that it was already approved by the FAA. It quickly came to light that several of the individuals Riggs named had never heard of the series or had refused to be involved, and two of the pilots (Riggs and another person) had their pilot certificates suspended by the FAA for doing stupid things with airplanes. On top of that, the FAA hadn't approved anything aside from a couple of test flights, and the agency eventually refused to approve the series after they determined it was far too unsafe.

Riggs also ran a company giving rides in L-39 trainers despite not having a commercial pilot certificate (the FAA never explained why they ignored reports of this for several years), and eventually ended up with a pilot and passenger being killed in a crash, which finally lead to the FAA issuing an emergency revocation of his pilot certificates in 2012.
 
TARPSBird said:
I'm curious too. For somebody to have that big of an axe to grind that they would set up a website to expose some guy as a fraud and a criminal, me thinks they had a really bad experience with the guy and I'll betcha it involved money.
Click to expand...

I think so also. Look years ago I posted my concerns with the so-called "skiing" stunt with aircraft due to the danger of the maneuver. But, frankly it is easy and inexpensive to setup a blog website and use it to destroy someone. So, I think it best to treat such efforts with a jaundiced eye. And now that the man is dead, to defiantly and overtly say he will continue with the website, well that seems to indicate obsession and malice. And I can never see much good in that. Ultimately, money can be important, but it's never more important than life.

Ken
 
PRB said:
I've never heard of David Riggs before this week. Apparently he's been working, or “working”, depending on who you ask, as a stunt pilot for some years, but has had some “run-ins” with the “authorities” over various aviation related matters, and lost his license in the US. Whatever the history, it would appear he has come to a tragic end in an airshow in China this past month. More tragic, is that his passenger, an 19 year Chinese woman working as his translator, was also killed.

Whoever started this web site appears to have been passionately devoted to exposing Mr. Riggs for some time:

http://www.aviationcriminal.com/
Click to expand...

you may have seen this before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujfsp_b1Q7g
 
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