This February 2007 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Posted as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Aircraft: Luscombe 8A.
Location: Compton, Calif.
Injuries: 2 Minor.
Aircraft damage: Substantial.
What reportedly happened: The pilot attempted to allow his passenger, who was not a current pilot, to land the airplane while the pilot “followed” him on the controls.
When the airplane began to veer to the side of the runway, the pilot instructed the passenger to relinquish the controls, in particular the rudder pedals. The passenger did not comply despite the pilot’s repeated requests. This hindered the pilot’s ability to maintain control of the airplane. The Luscombe veered off the runway and into a parked airplane and a wall.
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing rollout. A contributing factor was the passenger’s interference with the pilot’s manipulation of the controls.
When I was young they used to let passengers fly, but due to so many aviation accidents caused by this and recent security precautions, such things typically don’t occur anymore.
NTSB accidents reports are posted as an educational tool for the general aviation public–they are not entertainment news.
Just because it didn’t fall out of the sky, doesn’t mean it’s not a crash. It “crashed” into a parked plane and a wall.
The headline was somewhat misleading; I expected to read about a “crash†not someone veering off the runway. Clicked “read more” expecting a newsworthy story to find one paragraph with nothing to get excited over or even worth reading. It must have been a slow news day. 🙂 Not even a photo.