In the Cockpit, Are Two Heads Better Than One?

Sometimes the multiplication of eyes and minds does not prevent fatal airplane accidents.

Peter Garrison

Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

To hold the controls of an airplane is easy. To snatch them from another pilot, literally or figuratively, is one of the hardest things a pilot might have to do. [Credit: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Two separate aviation accidents, one in Alaska and one in Oregon, both involved pilots continuing Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flights into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), leading to fatal crashes.
A key commonality in both incidents was the presence of multiple highly experienced, instrument-rated pilots on board, raising questions about why their collective expertise didn't prevent the accidents.
The article suggests these accidents were exacerbated by the absence of a formal crew structure, leading to social dynamics where pilot-passengers hesitated to challenge the Pilot in Command or became passively reliant, ultimately undermining safety.

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The scattered wreckage of the 1948 A-model Bonanza was identified by comparing photos, taken from a circling Cessna, with ones of the formerly pristine polished-aluminum airplane. It had fallen and slid more than a mile after flying, under control and at cruising speed, into the sheer cliff that formed one face of a 12,000-foot mountain.

There it remained. The terrain was too hazardous to permit recovery of the wreckage.