The aviation industry in recent years has highlighted loss of control in-flight (LOC-I) as the leading cause of general aviation fatal accidents. Many aviation organizations, including government agencies, have devoted considerable time and resources to target this problem and develop effective mitigations to reduce the number of LOC-I accidents. Much of that effort focuses on a pilot losing control, and how to train and equip to prevent it, because it’s the final event in the accident chain.
It’s a no-brainer when we point to loss of control as an accident cause when the stall/spin was preceded by steep turns at low altitude. And technology, training and certification are all appropriate avenues for the industry’s efforts to prevent this accident type. Risk management is an important part of that effort—what led the pilot to think steep turns at low altitude was a great idea?—and we may have overlooked poor risk management as a root cause of many—perhaps most—LOC-I accidents.
