AOPA and the Air Safety Institute will participate in panel discussions examining loss-of-control accidents involving general aviation fixed-wing aircraft at a day-long National Transportation Safety Board forum in October.
The forum, “Humans and Hardware: Preventing Inflight Loss of Control in General Aviation,” scheduled for Oct. 14 at the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center in Washington, D.C., is free and open to the public.
“Every GA pilot gets training in loss-of-control events, such as aerodynamic stalls,” said NTSB Member Earl F. Weener, who will preside at the event. “Yet about 40 percent of GA fatal accidents involve loss of control. We want to know what can be done to better address this stubbornly recurrent safety challenge.”
Discussion topics 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.
There will be presentations by pilots, instructors, GA advocacy groups, the FAA, and manufacturers of potential technological countermeasures, the NTSB said in an announcement.
“Preventing inflight loss of control in general aviation has been on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List since January,” the independent safety agency said.
George Perry, senior vice president of the AOPA Air Safety Institute, will be among panelists who will discuss industry and government perspectives and actions. Perry will describe the Air Safety Institute’s continuing efforts to educate pilots on loss of control with the goal of preventing such accidents in the future.
“Two recent examples of the educational material produced by the Air Safety Institute are a video addressing loss-of-control prevention and the twenty-fourth edition of the Nall Report, general aviation’s cornerstone document on safety trends and accident analysis. The Air Safety Institute makes safety education products like these available to all pilots for free,” he said.
AOPA’s medical consultant, Dr. Jonathan Sackier, will address human performance and medical issues in a second panel. Pilot training solutions will be the subject of another panel in which David Oord, AOPA vice president of regulatory affairs, will participate.
“The FAA and industry are working on approaches to integrate risk management into pilot training and testing. In order to reach the next level of safety, it is critical that pilots, both new and existing, have the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to better manage the various risks associated with flying,” Oord said.
Oord co-chaired FAA/industry working groups that used data-driven approaches to study past fatal loss-of-control accidents , make recommendations, and develop a comprehensive plan to prevent future accidents. He said that efforts are underway to develop materials for a risk-based flight review to benefit the existing pilot population. Also in development are “new, integrated, and holistic airman certification standards that will incorporate risk management into every area of operation and task for every pilot certificate and rating” for future pilot-certificate applicants.
The forum will be held Oct. 14 in the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W. Washington, D.C., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and by webcast.
