Why Are Flight Students Taught About the NTSB in Ground School?

By deconstructing previous accidents, pilots can learn from the mistakes of others and develop the skill to mitigate risk.

Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 09:00 AM ET

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Pilot candidates learn about the role of the NTSB because it's important to know what constitutes an accident or an incident, and when the agency needs to be notified. [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

Pilot ground schools include NTSB instruction so candidates understand what constitutes an accident or incident, and when to notify the agency, as outlined in Part 830 of the FAR/AIM.
Studying past accidents helps pilots recognize poorly managed risks, leading to discussions on how to identify and develop strategies to mitigate those risks in their own flying.
By deconstructing previous accidents, pilots learn from others' mistakes and develop critical risk mitigation skills to choose safer alternative courses of action.

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Question: Why do private pilot ground schools include instruction about accidents and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)? I thought the point was not to crash?

Answer: Pilot candidates learn about the role of the NTSB because it’s important to know what constitutes an accident or an incident, and when the agency needs to be notified. The criteria for both is listed under Part 830 in the (Federal Aviation Regulations/ Aeronautical Information Manual FAR/AIM).

Talking about accidents in ground school helps learners recognize risks that were not properly managed by the accident pilots. This leads to discussion about ways to identify and develop ways to mitigate those risks.

By deconstructing previous accidents, pilots can learn from the mistakes of others and develop the skill to mitigate risk by seeking an alternative course of action resulting in a better outcome.

Meg Godlewski

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.