First study surveys surviving pilots to understand causes of in-flight loss of control

On average, four planes crash each day in the United States with almost all of aircraft involved being single-engine planes. One in five of those crashes were caused by in-flight loss of control, defined by the Federal Aviation Administration as “unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight.” Nearly half of accidents caused by in-flight loss of control are fatal.

New research from a University of Arkansas mechanical engineering assistant professor, Neelakshi Majumdar, investigates why in-flight loss of control occurs in general aviation, which includes all civil flights except for commercial transports of people or cargo, and how pilots can prevent and recover from it. The work could improve pilot training and save lives.

The paper, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Air Transportation, is the first rigorous survey to ask surviving pilots why they experienced in-flight loss of control and document the human factors that led to the incidents. Nearly 200 pilots completed the survey.

Karen Marais, professor of Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was the second author of the paper.

Out of control high in the sky

Pilots cannot always avoid in-flight loss of control, as it may result from mechanical failure or unexpected severe weather. In Majumdar’s survey of pilots who experienced in-flight loss of control, however, she found errors caused by either a lack of skills or a poor decision often contributed to the incident.

Errors include low airspeed, trying to take off with an overweight plane, incorrect use of autopilot, overlooking a checklist item, and not recognizing that the aircraft is in a spin. While pilots cannot control the weather, they often fail to check the weather or overestimate their ability to handle bad conditions.

Past research on in-flight loss of control has relied on data from the National Transportation Safety Board. Researchers use NTSB data because it is the official record collected after an accident. But the quality of that data varies widely.

“For some accidents, they would have a detailed narrative about what happened,” Majumdar said. “For others, it would be vague, generic and broad.”

Majumdar found that many pilots did not want to talk about loss of control incidents.

“Pilots are too scared to lose their license,” she said.

The pilots who participated in the study skewed older. The professional pilots were more likely to be retired. Majumdar speculates these older pilots saw less risk in discussing loss of control incidents.

The most common causes of in-flight loss of control, Majumdar found, were poor planning that led to flying in severe weather and pilots recognizing too late that they were in a dangerous situation, which delayed or prevented corrective actions.

The need for training

“What stood out for me was that around one quarter of the pilots talked about inadequate training for preventing loss of control scenarios,” Majumdar said.

Several of the pilots in the survey said they were never taught how to recover from out-of-control situations like spins and spirals. Even pilots who are taught how to recover from a spin may not have the skills to execute the recovery.

“When it comes to actually doing it, how many people can actually do it within five seconds?” Majumdar said.

Majumdar, herself a licensed private pilot, believes that technology like flight simulators could be used to better train pilots on how to avoid and recover from in-flight loss of control incidents. Flight simulators could also reduce the cost of training.

“General aviation is really unsafe compared to commercial aviation. Pilot training and education is something that needs to be done better,” she said.