Accident Case Study: Everyone's Problem

Description: The Air Safety Institute’s Accident Case Study: Everyone’s Problem takes a look at a flight training accident in Texas that killed a flight instructor and two students on November 15, 2007. The video was originally developed for ASI’s online Flight Instructor Refresher Course, and holds lessons for all of us—not only as pilots and CFIs, but as friends, peers, and co-workers.

[babababad]

Most Accident Case Study videos: "A complex and nuanced series of poor decisions that led to tragedy might have been avoided had those involved been more familiar with a web of regulations and procedures."
This video: "A stupid person killed two people and himself."

[hogo]

Something the video doesn't mention that I feel is incredibly important to say; when you push an aircraft beyond its design envelope you are essentially guaranteed to cause damage to the airframe. Sometimes this damage is instantaneous, as in this case. Other times it's Insidious, Invisible cracks or metal fatigue slowly weakening the structure over the next however many flights. Often times its not the reckless who die from aerobatics in aircraft that can't handle it, it's the unassuming sucker who flies the aircraft a day, a week, a month later when the fatigue damage finally gives out.

[arklght]

During officer training we were repeatedly told “the standard you set is the standard you walk away from”. You know when something isn’t right, you get that feeling on the back of your neck. Someone must have known about this guy but walked away from it.

[robertgantry]

Probably a likable and charismatic guy whom nobody wanted to piss off. Probably the kind of guy who would harass and publicly humiliate anyone who opposes him, and others probably just follow along. Probably the kind of guy whom I would go out of my way to try to put him in his proper place. Probably the kind of guy who has lots of friends backing him up. I've seen it a thousand times.

[dhoneybee]

Reminds me of when I took a pre purchase flight in a Cessna 172 in Florida. The guy flying was a 50 year old career instructor complete with ray bans and leather jacket. His demeaner and appearance screamed "look at me I'm cool...I'm a pilot ". As soon as we leveled off out of our climb he said "...want me to show you what this can do?" I said no it's a 172 I know what it can do I just want to see if I want to buy this one. I tested avionics and nav instruments, radios and controls and went back in for a safe landing.

[juanpennisi]

I'm as far from aviation as anyone can be, yet I'm hooked to these videos for their general validity in life lessons.

[comments]

Without someone to haul him back, that instructor was going to get it sooner or later. Unfortunately he took two victims with him. So sad.

[gabe-poyi]

A “good” pilot with a reckless streak is not a good pilot.

[johnhtexas]

I trained in a Tomahawk in 1980. As a PP student, I gave a thumbs up to my CFI when he asked me if it would bother me to do a barrel roll. He did two of them. Watching this video makes me shudder thinking of what could have been when I was young.

I now reflect back over 40 years and realize I was young, dumb, and stupid being trained by a young, dumb, and stupid CFI. Glad to say I did NOT take his hot dog habits with me. Even after I got my PPL that same year I flew my plane like a little old lady going to church on Sundays. Always careful, conservative, and refused to risk me, my passengers, or my plane. Those are the habits I still practice today.

[edadan]

I had a CFI show me how to do wing overs in a 152 when I was training for my PPL. Later that week, I tried to demonstrate the maneuver to another CFI. Just one problem...I forgot to pull the power, and in a heartbeat, we were diving towards the ground at Vne. That was my last wing over!

[Oferb]

I did some spins and spin recovery in a C172 with my CFI, for my private pilot license. It is not required by the FAA, but i think it made me a better and safer pilot.
I think that a pilot should know the limitations of the aircraft, and that includes unusual attitudes. It should be practiced safely, with a CFI, at enough altitude, and NOT overstress the airplane.

[c-ug]

Back in the early 1970s I took aerobatic instruction in a 180hp Decathelon which was rated for aerobatics.Jettisonable door and parachutes supplied. Learned spin (normal and inverted) recovery, coordinated slow rolls, inverted flight, Immelmans, snap rolls, loops, and one Lomcevak. Never did another Lomcevak because I apprised it too hard on the airframe and especially on the crankshaft and propeller. I heard that my instructor was later killed while pushing the envelope at an airshow flying his Pitts. I didn't do aerobatics in other aircraft but it was good knowing that if I somehow ended up in an unusual attitude, I wouldn't freak out because I knew how to recover. I prided myself on being always calm and competent rather than being bold.

[joemeyer]

I was working on my instrument rating back in 2000, in a 172, my instructor did a snap roll on a one mile final, and We landed uneventfully. He did it again the next day, with another student, And an FAA administrator was on the field, saw him do it! Tickets pulled. Bye bye airline career!

[thonatim]

During my first training flight, my instructor performed a three-rotation spin. He wanted to show me the worst likely scenario. It was in a C152, which is rated for spin training. I know of no CFIs that would be as careless as the one in the video.

[danlugo]

I went on a trip to Castaway 1770, it's an island here in Australia you have to fly to. We flew there in a Cessna, me and one other guy, with the pilot who seemed to be a decent guy. Once in the air that changed and he was truly a lunatic. He told the guy in the front to look out his window and then violently banked to the extent the passenger would have fallen out has he not been strapped in. It was terrifying, acrobatics and dives the whole way. Lo and behold one of the planes crashed in 2017 killing one passenger. I believe they claimed engine failure but it was an accident waiting to happen.

[MassimilianoChiani]

Both students were italians and one of them was a guy from our aeroclub in Mantova. RIP Andrea

[daveshaw]

Now imagine renting a plane that this yahoo demonstrated his "skills" in
Over stressing the wings leaving them fragile n ready to go

[Probly_a_sweet_potato]

Come for the case study, stay for the life advice

[Jibriltz]

Every pilot knows a guy like this. It takes a huge amount of confidence and guts to stand up to one of these pilots and tell them they're flying unsafely, especially if they have a cavalier attitude or they're a so-called 'alpha male'. It's way better to make enemies for doing what is safe over being the most popular guy in the cemetery. Let them call you a pussy, let them think you're an arsehole but don't be the guy who sits quietly while the plane crashes.

[Cwrasmith]

If the wings rip off remember to cut power so you don't hit so hard.