NTSB: CFI's Need More FAA Oversight

NTSB: CFI’s Need More FAA Oversight

Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 09:56 AM ET

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The graphic accompanying an FAA flight advisory for GPS interference testing centered on Idaho's Mountain Home Air Force Base shows signal disruption is possible at FL250 within a 184 nm radius, or even at 50 feet all within an 84 nm radius

Key Takeaways:

The NTSB recommended the FAA implement automated alerts and increased surveillance for flight instructors whose students have substandard pass rates, citing a fatal crash where the accident pilot trained with such an instructor.
Florida's KPIE airport experienced an extended "ATC Zero" control tower closure due to staff exposure, requiring pilots to adapt to modified IFR services during the longest known event of its kind.
Military GPS interference testing is increasingly disrupting aviation operations, causing a significant rise in navigational errors and safety reports despite pilots sometimes disregarding advisory NOTAMs.

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As a result of its ongoing investigation into the fatal June 21, 2019, crash of a Beech A90 King Air after takeoff from a Hawaiian parachute operation, the NTSB is issuing three recommendations to the FAA calling for increased oversight of flight instructors, especially those CFIs with “substandard student pass rates.” According to the NTSB, the “accident pilot had failed three initial flight tests…after receiving instruction from a single instructor.”

After each failure, the accident pilot subsequently passed his flight tests but “the pass rate for other students taught by the same flight instructor was 59 percent (for the two-year period ending in April 2020).” The NTSB noted, “FAA data show the average national pass rate for students of all flight instructors is 80 percent.”