It's awfully easy to get disoriented when in the air. I haven't flow much at night but I have flown IFR in a small plane at low altitude through clouds. You can't tell the damned airplane is moving unless you open a window. Descent, ascent and turns can seem entirely wrong. Your inclination is to believe your senses, not some damned turn indicator and horizon thingie. Ask that Kennedy boy, if you could.

I can imagine that flying fast and low in a helicopter at night using the monocular night vision goggles could be terribly disorienting. A tiny lapse in thought would be all it takes.

Those men are tuned to the max human output in every way and they come alive living on the edge. When they make a mistake usually somebody is in a world of hurt.

B