@Kristin would it not be almost impossible for a medical evacuation to put the aircraft overweight if the flight was conducted by one of these fairly large planes? After all, it’s not going to be taking ordinary passengers.
I was wondering about helicopter services in the area. Do they exist or is it literally just Bering Air?
There are multiple grades of medical evacuation. It might just be part of a regular flight, but person needs to get to a facility for dialysis, or some such urgent, but not yet an emergency. There are all sorts of situations which require some flexibility. As far as weight is concerned, often times the temperatures are significantly below standard temperature, which helps mitigate the performance degradation. I am only pointing out some of the realities, not advocating for routinely running over gross, particularly by such a large amount. I have never run a plane that far over gross. Maybe 100-200 lbs at most.
The NTSB did not cite spatial disorientation as a factor in this mishap. Instead, they determined this was simply a case of a pilot that lost awareness of his airspeed and did not apply the correct inputs to recover from the stall. The overweight aircraft and the icing didn’t help the situation, but the bottom line is that pilots need to be go through UPRT in order to be better prepared if they find themselves in a situation like this (i.e. startled by stall warning and low airspeed and stall onset).
Kristin,
I agree with you and appreciate your inputs. As you and others have pointed out, flying over gross becomes a problem when you normalize the behavior and no one thinks twice about doing it. Hopefully that’s the kind of decision making we can correct going forward.
Thanks for being a part of the Debrief Crew!
You make the bigger point which is at the heart of ADM. Any time a pilot is playing near the edges, whether they are just in or just out, it needs be done with thought and preparation. Fooling around on the edges without thinking about it, is what happens when deviance is normalized.
As a glider pilot, I am aghast every time I read or hear about a pilot who stalls a perfectly good aircraft into the ground (CFIT). While flying gliders we are flying as slow as possible at high angles of bank to maximize climb rate in a thermal. We are regularly stalling the glider in an attitude that can readily enter a stall/spin. But it is no big deal: we lower the nose and neutral the controls to regain flying speed and lower than angle of attack. ALL power pilots should take glider training.
BTW, in 48 years of flying gliders I only actually entered a unintentional spin once. That was when I was a student flying in a tandem glider. I was flying and was thermalling when I stalled the glider. When I felt the nose drop I instinctively pulled full back on the stick - hard and the glider went into a spin! The PIC shouted “MY GLIDER!” and I let go of the stick. He recovered us from the spin and we continued thermally. But I have never forgotten the shear panic I felt at the time.
@Kristin sure, this company wasn’t just relaxing the rules a bit, they were blatantly flouting them. Hearing about this kind of practice does nothing to endear me to the idea of booking a charter flight. That’s the problem with a diet of fatal GA accidents - I tend to view the idea of being a passenger in a light aircraft, being flown by a private pilot, as inherently risky now. Though it’s not such a common lifestyle in the UK as the distance between various parts of it is not that great.
Alaska is a bit of its own thing as it is the only place in the US where large parts are utterly dependent on general aviation. That doesn’t much happen in the Lower 48 as there are many other modes of transportation generally available. That being said, hopping into a small plane with a private pilot is statistically much riskier than more common modes of transportation.
91.323 somehow magically changes the laws of physics for Alaska and I think contributes to a normalization of deviance:
§ 91.323 Increased maximum certificated weights for certain airplanes operated in Alaska.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of the Federal Aviation Regulations, the Administrator will approve, as provided in this section, an increase in the maximum certificated weight of an airplane typecertificated under Aeronautics Bulletin No. 7-A of the U.S. Department of Commerce dated January 1, 1931, as amended, or under the normal category of part 4a of the former Civil Air Regulations (14 CFR part 4a, 1964 ed.) if that airplane is operated in the State of Alaska by—
(1) A certificate holder conducting operations under part 121 or part 135 of this chapter; or
(2) The U.S. Department of Interior in conducting its game and fish law enforcement activities or its management, fire detection, and fire suppression activities concerning public lands.
(b) The maximum certificated weight approved under this section may not exceed—
(1) 12,500 pounds;
(2) 115 percent of the maximum weight listed in the FAA aircraft specifications;
(3) The weight at which the airplane meets the positive maneuvering load factor n, where n=2.1+(24,000/(W+10,000)) and W=design maximum takeoff weight, except that n need not be more than 3.8; or
(4) The weight at which the airplane meets the climb performance requirements under which it was type certificated.
(c) In determining the maximum certificated weight, the Administrator considers the structural soundness of the airplane and the terrain to be traversed.
(d) The maximum certificated weight determined under this section is added to the airplane’s operation limitations and is identified as the maximum weight authorized for operations within the State of Alaska.
The pilot appears to have responded inappropriately to the stall, but despite the data, we don’t really know what was happening in the cockpit and aerodyamically. An iced up airplane that is 12% over gross weight is a total unknown entity in a stall. Frankly, we don’t know if recovery was even possible once the stall began. This is test pilot stuff. I would put the pilots reliance on the autopilot during icing and failure to maintain airspeed as the contributing causes if you want to tag the pilot with some airmanship issues.
To my mind this accident’s cause was failure to obtain and maintain adequate awareness of weather and a corporate disregard for operating limitations of the aircraft. But, I’m open to correction in that opinion.
What is amazing to me and a thing that I wonder about is how often pilots respond incorrectly to stalls in the heat of the moment when all of us have been trained and had it drummmed into our heads to push (yoke and throttles) in a stall. Perhaps there is a deficiency in our training if we only respond that way when we are intentionally going out to the practice area to ‘practice stalls.’ Maybe an opportunity for more simulator training during initial pilot training or with the commercial rating to make upset recovery more realistic…..
No, I would think you’ve hit the nail on the head. That’s likely to be exactly what happened. Maybe one of the lessons from this is to strive for a safety culture where aircraft, already operating in difficult conditions much of the time, aren’t routinely expected to take off grossly overweight and secondly, pilots are given regular recurrent training so they are used to both high and lower altitude stalls and partial panel flying even. Most people would welcome the opportunity to keep improving as a pilot, continuing to develop skills.
The problem is that the training fades with time and is a distant memory at the time you need it the most. And when it does occur during training a different part of the brain is activated, knowing the am impending stall is eminent. When the stall occurs during normal flight operations the autonomous part of the brain is in control which can have a totally different response. This has been extensively researched and you can read about it in the book “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman.
@glidertom I take your point. Still, I think something needs to change in that company. It may not be perfect, but making sure all pilots quickly recognise a stall and act appropriately has to be the aim. To do nothing would be giving the impression that all these people died for nothing.
I don’t suppose commercial pilots flying large airliners are any more prepared for a stall, because this doesn’t really happen to those planes. I’ve never once been in anything other than rock solid flight while in a large airliners. I’d be startled if I experienced a stall!
I think they get that recurrent training - in a full motion simulator. This all came to a head after the UAL near disaster in San Francisco. A fully loaded and fueled 747 almost crashed into San Bruno Mtn because the 1st officer didn’t really know how to fly the aircraft with an engine failure. Look it up: it is a real head shaker.
@glidertom thank you, I will!
The competitor (Ravn) that this company (Bering Air) acquired was the latest successor company of the “Flying Wild Alaska” TV Show airline: Era Alaska, which was a part 121 bush carrier run by the Tweeto family. Not to be confused with the other TV show “Ice Pilots” (the vintage planes up in NWT, Canada with Buffalo Joe). The TV show is how we all got familiar with towns like Unakleet!
@cstacy hi and welcome. Interesting background you’ve provided, thank you.