Pilot Proficiency

Sky Kings: Safety Cause du Jour

Monday, March 13, 2017 at 07:49 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash resulted from pilot distraction and inappropriate response to a stall warning, exacerbated by potentially misleading training on tailplane icing recovery.
The pilots' actions, including pulling back on the yoke and raising flaps during the stall, were consistent with the procedures taught in a mandatory NASA training video on tailplane icing, despite their aircraft not being susceptible to this type of stall.
The inclusion of this irrelevant training video highlights the risk of unintended consequences from government overreach in aviation safety regulations.
Further examples of potentially harmful regulatory overreach are cited, including increased pilot hour requirements and changes to stall warning training, suggesting a pattern of unintended negative consequences from zealous safety initiatives.

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Martha King and John King take turns writing Sky Kings. They have shared flying and teaching aviation for more than 50 years.