Two Fatal Cases of the Simply Inexperienced

NTSB reports blame a pair of aviation accidents on green pilots.

Peter Garrison

Monday, May 27, 2024 at 10:00 AM ET

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Edited By: tccjeremy

Stall spins are, and always have been, a common cause of fatalities in general aviation. [Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Two fatal general aviation accidents in 2019 highlighted critical issues of pilot qualifications, regulatory non-compliance, and aircraft airworthiness.
The South Dakota crash involved a student pilot flying a Cessna 140 with a passenger despite lapsed certifications and lack of endorsement, leading to a stall-spin which the NTSB attributed to the pilot's non-compliance and inexperience.
The Florida Cessna 421 crash, killing a 500-hour CFI and occupants, involved an aircraft that hadn't had an annual inspection in five years and was likely being flown before an A&P sign-off; the NTSB blamed the pilot's lack of training and experience in the specific aircraft type.
The article questions the NTSB's singular focus on pilot inexperience and non-compliance in both cases, particularly for the Florida accident, suggesting the possibility of overlooked mechanical or external causes.

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In September 2019, in a sparsely populated part of South Dakota near the Nebraska border, a father and son went flying in their Cessna 140. When they did not return, sheriffs began a search.

The next day, the wreckage of the 140, its front end crushed, was found a few hundred feet northwest of the pilot’s private strip. Since the flaps were down, it had evidently been approaching to land when it stalled and spun. There was no way to know why the mishap occurred, but the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report on the accident noted that conditions were such that carburetor icing was likely.