Instructors Experience Is Questioned

The NTSB has released its report on a March 21, 2008 crash in Rome, GA, that claimed the lives of a student pilot and his instructor.

From the NTSB Report:

The private pilot was receiving instruction toward a multiengine airplane rating from a CFI. The training syllabus for the flight included introduction to engine failures on takeoff and initial climb, as well as approaches and landings with an inoperative engine. The airplane was observed climbing at slow rate of speed after takeoff. When the airplane reached an altitude of 600 to 800 feet, it began a left turn, consistent with a return to the airport, which was followed by a nose-down descent toward the trees. The airplane impacted in a field and a postcrash fire consumed the majority of the airplane, forward of the empennage. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of any preimpact malfunctions. The CFI had accumulated about 111 hours of total multiengine flight experience, all in the same make and model as the accident airplane. He received his CFI rating about 3 weeks prior to the accident and had accumulated about 60 hours of multiengine flight experience as a CFI.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:

The flight instructor's failure to maintain aircraft control while maneuvering during a simulated engine failure. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's lack of total experience as a multiengine flight instructor.

The flight instructor, 34-year old Kwang Yi, held a commercial pilot and flight instructor certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine, airplane multiengine, and instrument airplane.

The private pilot, 24-year-old Lokesh Venkat, held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land and instrument rating. He had accumulated 182 total hours of fight experience, which included about 7 hours of multiengine flight experience, all in the same make and model as the accident airplane, which he began flying on March 11, 2008.

The aircraft, a Beech BE-76, N184AA (file photo, above), was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain while maneuvering after takeoff from the Richard B. Russell Airport (RMG), Rome, Georgia. The certificated flight instructor and the certificated private pilot were fatally injured. The flight took place under VFR conditions, and no flight plan had been filed.

FMI www.ntsb.gov