I recently attended a webinar hosted by Kristi Dunks. Kristi is the Deputy Director of the Regional Operations at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). She is involved in the accident investigations of light aircrafts and hosted the webinar to talk about ‘Preventing Weather-related Accidents’ which are very common.

Although this webinar is based on the NTSB for aviation safety in the US – the principle of flight is universal. The flying challenges we face in the UK are the same wherever you are – whether that is weather related or aircraft failures. Anything that compromises safety is worth knowing about in order to learn from experiences and become a better pilot.

In this blog I will provide a summary of the webinar with my own input. This blog will present how this webinar has helped me gain a better understanding of what makes a ‘proficient airman’ when faced with challenges mid-flight. Below I attach an overview of my notes from the webinar:

Most common causes of accidents and the importance of vigilance

Based on the NTSB the most common cause is loss of control. This very often leads to unrecoverable spins or stalls mid-flight. It’s important to note stall occurs not because of low speed (as stall occurs at high speed too) rather when the critical angle of attack (AoA) is exceeded. The secondary cause of accidents is systems failure – for example, engine or a mechanical failure. Other causes include human error and structural failure (e.g. fatigue cracking).

In majority of accidents, they have occurred during the landing phase. In order to avoid a challenging situation during landing – it’s important to follow a set of tasks. One of these is to follow landing operational procedures – for example, switching carburettor heat ON in order to prevent ice formation on approach when the engine rpm is low. It’s also important a pilot is aware of their aircraft systems – for example, being above their stall speed. With flaps fully extended, aircraft at low height and low speeds – the aircraft is more vulnerable to an unrecoverable stall. And one other task to keep in mind is to prepare – for example, prepare for potential windshear or an unexpected go-around (GA). In my previous post I talked about how a crash case study involving a fast-evolving situation and certain pilot actions that inevitably led to a crash instead of a GA or even a hard landing as a last resort. Whilst the pilot left unharmed – the aircraft was written off.

Since this blog is dedicated to weather-based accidents it’s only fair to mention the most common types of weather-associated accidents. The most common cause is adverse winds – such as gusts, crosswinds and tailwinds. And again most commonly at the landing phase or take-off. The second most common is during an instrument meteorological condition (IMC) – at low ceiling and low visibility. And the third most common is carburettor icing – which we discussed above.

Case study: Cirrhus SR22 crash

A Cirrus SR22, N121LD crashed on October 25, 2006, northeast of Meadview, Arizona. This occurred over 15 years ago – but this still continues to be an example as there are key lessons to be learnt for pilots . Below are some of the notes I made as a summary from the webinar:

Below are photos of the crash site. This caused fatalities of three passengers on-board along with the pilot. The pilot was flying his family to the Grand Canyon to go hiking and then had plans to fly to Phoenix, Arizona.

During the flight the Cirrus reported icing conditions at 12,000ft. The pilot navigated through more than one weather intensities, including icing. Initially, the flight was planned under instrument flight rules (IFR) and later a combination of visual flight rules (VFR) and IFR.

The pilot had 892 hours, 384 of which were in this Cirrus. Most of the hours flown were IFR. I won’t go into too much detail about the actual flight itself – I provide a summary of my notes. Instead I would like to highlight what went well and what didn’t go so well during the flight that contributed to the crash in order to create lessons.

Reason of the crash: Icing of moderate intensity in area issued with convective SIGMET and AIRMET – leading to stall and uncontrollable spin.

What went well:

What didn’t go well:

Expanding on the above points in detail

The pilot did not request a weather briefing. This may have been because of the clear skies on the day. As well as the on-board XM satellite weather system the pilot may have been confident to use that instead. However, we know from the NTSB investigation that they found irregularities between the weather display shown in the cockpit vs the weather briefs. In addition to this icing was a key factor that led to the crash. Therefore, we cannot assume visible ‘clear skies’ is indeed the reality in-flight. In our example – although the weather for an airfield circuit may look good – we may be diverted further afield where conditions are far worse. Or perhaps experience sudden turbulence like the Cirrhus did.

Should the pilot have flown through AIRMET and Convective SIGMETs? An AIRMET consists of visibility, ice and turbulence warnings. This is less severe than a convective SIGMET – which includes severe thunderstorms, severe icing or low-level wind shear. The area the pilot flew through was issued with both warnings. Whilst he may have had the expertise and experience of almost 900 hours – in hindsight it would have been better to divert and land rather than continue with the flight.

Failure to deploy CAPS – Cirrhus is the only manufacturer to operate a whole airframe parachute capability. According to the operating procedures in the event of a loss of control the CAPS should be deployed – from the NTSB investigation they confirmed this CAPS was deployed prior to impact. Perhaps this can be attributed to panic, confusion or prioritising multiple things at once that caused this to slip from the pilot’s mind?

Failure of flight service specialist (FSS) and ATC controller to provide weather-related information. According to the FAA, the FSS and ATC controller should have notified the pilot of the weather conditions for his flight. Although this wasn’t the causative factor that led to the crash – this certainly contributed and led to a failure to break the chain of events that led up to the crash.

What are the lessons we can learn?

Request a full weather briefing on every flight

This is regardless of the presence of any on-board weather systems. You would rather have a lot of information than little to none – especially at 3,000 ft or above in bad weather conditions. The Cirrus crash is an example of having an inadequate weather evaluation.

A complete pre-flight plan

Ensure you plan ahead and know what to expect. And know what you will do in the event of sudden weather changes. Even prepare for emergencies through arm-chair flying prior to flying.

Attain regular weather updates en-route

Particularly if you are flying cross-country or to France. Ensure you’re aware of sudden changes in weather during the flight and before flight – check weather radars, METARs and TAFs. And it may be good practise to know the weather whilst in-flight. A quick glance on your iPad is enough to know what to expect.

Report a PIREP

This is a report of the actual weather conditions encountered during the flight. This is transmitted by radio or telephoning after landing. This is then used to notify other pilots in the vicinity – and potentially prevent an incident! It’s always good practise to report this!

Navigate to safety  

In the event of emergency – remain calm and focus on flying the aircraft. Be prepared of any emergency that may compromise safety. Ensure to follow operational procedures – for example, deploying CAP in the Cirrus. And most importantly, prevent distractions from losing your focus. In the case of the Cirrus – the pilot flew into restricted airspace and received a prompt by ATC to make a ‘Pilot Deviation call’ after landing. This may have caused a sense of distress in an already stressful situation with the weather. Managing stress under pressure is a skill in itself.

Safety first

It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground. A fine example of this is being in unfamiliar airspaces faced with unfamiliar incidents – don’t be afraid to divert and land. In the case of the Cirrus – the pilot was flying in unfamiliar airspace and deviated into restricted airspace and continued flight into icing conditions. Instead, it may be better to land in such instances.

I really enjoy attending these webinars – I do feel like they are incredibly insightful and there is always something to learn. After a while you will see the same mistakes popping up again – and it’s something for you to avoid. I also like focussing on case studies – the Cirrus crash is the 3rd or 4th case study I have detailed. Again these are really important as they give you a detailed insight into the events leading up to the crash, what could’ve been done differently and what not to do when you start your flying career.

Nonetheless as always I hope this has been insightful for you. And I hope you have taken something away from this – my final takeaway message would be in the event of an emergency stay calm and fly the plane!

Happy flying.