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Two Fatal Cases of the Simply Inexperienced

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

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

Key Takeaways:

  • Two separate general aviation accidents, one in South Dakota involving a student pilot flying without proper certification and another in Florida with a CFI piloting an un-airworthy Cessna 421, resulted in fatalities.
  • The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) attributed both crashes primarily to pilot inexperience, lack of compliance with regulations, and insufficient training for the specific aircraft.
  • The article critiques the NTSB's conclusions, suggesting that an overemphasis on pilot error might overlook potential external factors, such as mechanical failure, as contributing causes to the accidents.
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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.

Peter Garrison

Peter Garrison taught himself to use a slide rule and tin snips, built an airplane in his backyard, and flew it to Japan. He began contributing to FLYING in 1968, and he continues to share his columns, ""Technicalities"" and ""Aftermath,"" with FLYING readers.

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