Questions from the Cockpit: Crash course

Jessica, a CFI in Arizona, writes: Over post-flight beers a group of instructors were discussing accidents in flight training, including one someone recalled from a while back that was on a multi checkride where the student and examiner landed a Seminole gear up. One of my colleagues jokingly asked, “Does this mean I fail?” And that, in turn, got us wondering: Is it possible to crash an airplane on a checkride and still pass the exam? And has it ever happened? Some thought yes, most thought, “No way!” I’m not sure myself, but I knew who to ask — you were my CFI ground instructor.

Good to hear from you, and thanks for thinking of me. Wow, what a delightfully twisted question. Just my kind of thing!

OK, so while I’ve never heard of it actually happening, I’m confident the answer is a conditional “yes.”

It’s possible to both bend metal and to pass your checkride. And I bet it’s happened dozens of times in the history of checkrides.

That said, the conditions that make it “conditional” are pretty hard to meet.

Basically, the candidate would have to have successfully passed all the elements of the test before the accident occurred, and the accident couldn’t be any kind of pilot error. But, if those boxes were checked, then technically the test is already over, and any accident that happens post-test wouldn’t count as part of the performance evaluation.

It goes without saying that it would also require the Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) to be a really good sport.

So how could that happen? (The test being over before the accident, not the examiner being a good sport.)

My first thought was something like, well, what if the student did awesome, had “passed,” and then subsequently lost an engine returning to the field? Or even just lost a tire on landing, resulting in a runway excursion?

So, some sort of accident that is not the applicant’s “fault,” but just one of those badly-timed Murphy’s Law events. Wouldn’t that still be a pass?

And the answer to that is yes, but…

The “but” is that on the sport, private, and commercial checkrides, parking and securing the airplane is part and parcel of the test. It would take a pretty open-minded examiner to count an emergency landing on a wheat field and subsequent evacuation as meeting all the standards normally associated with post-flight parking and securing of the airplane, which includes things like — from the private test — avoiding “confirmation bias as related to taxi instructions,” “runway incursion avoidance procedures,” and “airport specific security procedures.”

But anything is possible, and examiners do have some leeway in their interpretation of the FAA testing documents, although less so nowadays than back in the day.

Although, it is possible — perhaps — for an off-airport landing to meet those final post-flight elements on some of the practical tests.

A more likely candidate for a crash-and-pass checkride would be the test to add an instrument rating, as the post-flight procedures don’t specifically deal with parking, but with documenting discrepancies and avionics servicing requirements — which you could totally do from the wheat field if you kept your head.

Likewise, a multi-engine add-on to either a private or commercial certificate doesn’t appear to require the post-flight section of either test, so that could be another crash-and-not-burn result (metaphorically).

The CFI test is a gray area, but with the post-flight procedures on that test dealing largely with securing, deplaning, and post-flight inspection, I could see all of those being satisfied with an emergency shut down, evacuation, and evaluation of the aircraft after, say, an off-airport landing or runway excursion.

But that answer was just based on my reading of the tests. I’m not a DPE, so I reached out to a few to see what they had to say on the matter.

And while none of them had ever heard of such a thing actually happening, these DPEs proved that examiners can be good sports by being willing to join us outside the box for some creative thinking,

DPE Jason Blair confirmed my hunch that if all elements of the test were complete before an accident, the accident in itself wouldn’t necessarily result in a fail.

“I guess I could come up with a scenario or two where it is possible,” he said. “For example let’s say it was an instrument ride, and on the roll-out after it was all done they blew a tire and ended up off the runway. Technically, the instrument Airmen Certification Standards (ACS) doesn’t test parking, so the instrument skills tasks would have been done, and I guess you could say the test was done.”

He also said an instrument test that was finished at an airport away from home base that then experienced an incident returning to base, with the test over, but the examiner still on board, would fit the bill… sort of… although he points out that, technically, it really wouldn’t be a crash “on the test,” but just on test day.

But he added, “I honestly haven’t heard of a test that resulted in an accident or incident that was a pass.”

DPE Roger Sharp also has never heard of a crash-and-pass, suggesting that “the word ‘crash’ is problematic,” as “it implies a loss of control.”

That aside, he feels that, “given the right set of circumstances,” it would be possible to “damage an aircraft and still pass a practical test.”

DPE and chairman of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) Karen Kalishek also isn’t a fan of the word “crash,” and avoids using it herself.

She says that when used “in conversation or in print it can lead to public assumption that every aircraft incident is some out-of-control horrific event, rather than the reality, in many cases, that a pilot is reacting appropriately to an equipment malfunction.”

She points out the word likely originates from outside of aviation, in relation to automobile accidents, wryly pointing out that, “after all, cars don’t have ‘off roadway landings’ do they?”

But as to a non-crash incident on a checkride, is a pass still possible? She also says it depends.

More correctly, she says, “the answer is a firm ‘it depends,’ and it really would depend on circumstances.”

But if all elements of a test were completed satisfactorily before the we’re-not-calling-it-a-crash happened, then a pass is possible, she adds.

While she hasn’t personally experienced anything like that — “and hopes not to” — she did know of one exam where the engine failed and the candidate performed a textbook off-airport landing. However, she didn’t know if all of the test elements had been completed before it happened.

But, in theory, if “all tasks in the ACS had been completed satisfactorily,” a pass was possible. She was even willing to entertain the possibility of an off-airport landing checking off the final boxes for post flight. “Securing the aircraft — well that could be done. Documenting discrepancies? Likely check.”

So there you have it. If you bend metal after all elements of some checkrides are complete, there’s no reason to think you wouldn’t pass.

Although, technically, I guess this isn’t really crashing “on the checkride,” so much as crashing at the end of the checkride flight.

Additionally, under the right… errr… wrong circumstances, if something happens after all the other elements are complete, and you complete the post-flight tasks correctly off the runway, you might even pass your checkride as the dust — literally — settles.