The NTSB will hold a day-long forum addressing loss-of-control accidents in GA on Oct. 14 in Washington, D.C. Loss of control, one of the board’s primary topics in accident reduction efforts this year, continues to be a top cause of GA fatalities. The upcoming event, “Humans and Hardware: Preventing Inflight Loss of Control in General Aviation,” will examine the various types of accidents in the loss-of-control category, human performance factors, aeromedical issues, potential improvements in flight training and the use of technology such as angle-of-attack indicators to improve safety. NTSB member Earl Weener will conduct the forum.
The forum will include presentations from pilots, instructors, GA organizations, the FAA and the aviation industry. According to the board, approaches to landing, maneuvering and climbout are the most fatal type of loss-of-control accident, many of them ending in a stall-spin. “Every GA pilot gets training in loss-of-control events, such as aerodynamic stalls,” Weener said. “Yet about 40 percent of GA fatal accidents involve loss of control. We want to know what can be done to better address this stubbornly recurrent safety challenge.” In its safety recommendations on loss of control, the NTSB emphasized pilot training in topics including pre-stall recognition, flight risk assessment and recurrency training in the aircraft they fly.
