WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a one-day forum to examine the problem of loss-of-control crashes in general aviation fixed-wing aircraft, and explore possible solutions.
The event, “Humans and Hardware: Preventing Inflight Loss of Control in General Aviation,” will be held Oct.14, in Washington, D.C., and streamed live online.
“Every GA pilot gets training in loss-of-control events, such as aerodynamic stalls,” said NTSB Board Member Earl F. Weener, who will preside over the event. “Yet about 40% of GA fatal accidents involve loss of control. We want to know what can be done to better address this stubbornly recurrent safety challenge.”
Topics addressed will include:
- An overview of the various types of loss of control accidents,
- Human performance and medical issues,
- Potential training improvements, and
- Technological enhancements that can reduce loss of control accidents.
The forum will feature presentations from pilots, instructors, general aviation advocacy groups, the FAA, and manufacturers of potential technological countermeasures, among others.
The event will be held in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W. Washington D.C. The forum, which will go from 9 am to 5 p.m., is free and open to the public.
In addition, the forum can be viewed via webcast at NTSB.capitolconnection.org. Several days after the conclusion of the forum, an archived webcast of it will be posted on the NTSB website and will be available for 90 days.
Preventing inflight loss of control in general aviation has been on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List since January
We hear and read many stories of pilots losing control of their perfectly flyable machines. There are many reasons and contributing factors for such unfortunate situations. In many instances, pilots are well trained but lose situation awareness owing to many unknown reasons whatsoever. NTSB conducting a symposium is a wonderful and most welcomed idea.