NTSB Issues Report on 2019 Hawaii Plane Crash

by | Jan 9, 2021 | Aviation Accident

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its investigative report on the fatal June 2019 crash of a Beech King Air 65-A90 airplane.  The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the pilot and 10 passengers.

The NTSB’s report explains:

On June 21, 2019, about 1822 Hawaii-Aleutian standard time, a Beech King Air 65-A90 airplane, N256TA, impacted terrain after takeoff from HDH. The pilot and 10 passengers were fatally injured, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire.

The report found deficiencies in the training that was received by the pilot while he was a student:

During his initial flight training, the accident pilot logged about 53 hours in the King Air C90GTx airplane, but this time was logged during flights that included extended cross-country commercial Part 91 operations conducted with passengers in the cabin. In addition, the flight time was primarily logged as dual instruction while the accident pilot was still a student pilot.2 Thus, the flight instructor had provided training that the accident pilot could not have been expected to fully comprehend as a student pilot, and the flights were most likely conducted by the flight instructor with the accident pilot sitting in the copilot seat.

The NTSB raised concerns regarding what had transpired:

According to the FAA’s Aviation Instructor’s Handbook, the goal of a flight instructor is “to teach each learner in such a way that he or she will become a competent pilot.” The accident pilot’s three checkride failures on the first attempt, along with the flight instructor’s substandard pass rate for other students that he trained (59%), showed that the flight instructor did not achieve that goal. The NTSB is concerned that the substandard pass rate of the accident pilot’s flight instructor did not trigger any FAA surveillance and that other flight instructors with similar (or lower) pass rates might not receive any FAA surveillance.

The report made recommendations to the FAA to develop a system to automatically notify the FAA’s inspectors of flight instructors whose student pass rate became substandard.

Other recent NTSB reports include one into the investigation of the incident involving the tanker ship American Liberty, and the September, 2019 incident when a tug struck a wharf.

Spagnoletti Law Firm has attorneys licensed in Texas, Florida, and New York.  We have handled numerous cases involving the failure of necessary equipment on a plane or helicopter in both federal and state court across the country.  Our attorneys have extensive experience in plane and helicopter crash litigation and the skills needed to aggressively represent the families of loved ones who have lost their lives or those who have been seriously injured in a plane or helicopter crash.  The experienced aviation attorneys at Spagnoletti Law Firm can help you understand your rights if you or a loved one was a victim of a crash. Please contact us online or call 713-804-9306 or 877-678-5864 to learn more about your legal rights.