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NTSB: CFI’s Need More FAA Oversight

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
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The NTSB recommended the FAA enhance oversight of flight instructors, particularly by creating an automated system to flag those with substandard student pass rates, following a fatal crash linked to an instructor with a significantly below-average pass rate.
  • Military GPS interference testing has markedly increased, leading to a rise in navigation disruptions, aircraft flying off course, and issues with GPS-enabled autopilots taking planes in wrong directions.
  • An extended "ATC Zero" event, a prolonged air traffic control tower closure due to staff exposure, occurred at Florida's St Pete-Clearwater International Airport.
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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.”

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