instrument flight rating. you get tested so you can fly at night with just your instruments. that is what killed jfk jr he didnt know how close he was to the water.

 

Instrument flight rules, basically what Woody said flying solely by reference to the flight instruments, for example, in the clouds or fog where there is no outside visual references. Sounds easy enough, but there is some weird stuff that happens to your mind and body in that situation and its something you really have to practice alot and stay up on or you lose the ability to be able to handle it. IFR flying is a very busy work environment for the air traffic controllers and especially for a single pilot with five passengers causing distractions. Also on an IFR flight plan, you have to have a clearance to go anywhere or do anything, headings and altitudes are assigned by air traffic control and in the continental U.S. you are almost always under radar coverage by air traffic control and guaranteed traffic and obstacle separation from other aircraft and obstacles such as towers and mountains. I could probably go on all day about this as there is a lot to it but thats pretty much the basics. Hope that helps

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Heres a pretty good example of what I mean, there is a lot of videos on youtube for anyone interested. this video is a commercial airliner shooting one the lowest instrument approach you can possibly shoot but its a good example of the transition from visual flight to instrument.

 

They said there was heavy fog and they think he hit a guide wire off of a tower

 

Im thinking the guy either had engine trouble and was trying to find a place to land, possibly in the park where he crashed, or got very disoriented in the fog and crashed into the tower. All I know was he was NW of the airport at a very low altitude and he had been cleared to a fix SE of the airport and at a much higher altitude. the guide wire he hit was on a 150 foot tall cellphone tower and in an airplane 150 feet off the ground is not anywhere you ever want to be unless you are landing or taking off

 

that commercial airliner was probably Landing at 150 to 170 Knots in the video looks so slow,Things can happen so fast in the instrument world.

 

thoughts and prayers to the family