Flight safety detectives Episode 243 - Another Disappointing Training Accident Report

Another flight training accident, another lacking NTSB report. Todd Curtis, Greg Feith, and John Goglia discuss the NTSB report of a fatal June 2021 flight training accident near Indianapolis that lacks useful details or analysis.

The accident aircraft was Diamond DA40 with an instructor and student on board. The instructor had received a CFI certification about nine weeks before the accident. Most of the instructor’s 329 hours of flight experience were with the same make and model of aircraft.

The accident sequence began with a stall that turned into a spin. A certified CFI must demonstrate the ability to recover from a spin. The airplane flight manual included specific instructions for spin recovery.

The NTSB recreated the accident sequence using a data card from the airplane and it showed that proper spin recovery techniques were not used. What was much less clear was how the CFI reacted in the situation.
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The NTSB did not investigate the training of the CFI, the procedures used by the flight training organization, or the experience other students had with the CFI. There are not enough facts or insights in the report to make it useful to the aviation community.

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