The flight instructor reported that while his student was at the controls of the Piper PA-28-140, he initiated a simulated engine failure, and the student executed the emergency procedures for a forced landing.
The student chose a place to land and configured the airplane for landing, including full flaps.
The instructor noticed that the airplane’s airspeed was “a little slow” so he instructed the student to check the airspeed, then recover from the simulation.
The student retracted the flaps instead of adding engine power, and the airplane stalled and sank.
The CFI immediately attempted to take over the airplane’s controls from the student and verbally commanded “my controls,” but the student was “stuck on the controls and locked up” he told investigators.
The airplane continued to descend and touched down in a field near Newdale, Idaho, and nosed over.
Both wings, the fuselage, the vertical stabilizer, and the rudder sustained substantial damage.
Probable Cause: The premature retraction of the flaps by the student pilot while just above the airplane’s stall speed. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor’s inadequate supervision and failure to regain aircraft control from the student pilot.
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This June 2023 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Another piece of Piper tin lost. And not a tree in sight!
When a student has frozen on the controls you may not be able to overpower them quickly or safely. What you can do is apply your elbow as hard as you can to their gut. It usually diverts their attention.
This Flight Instructor was doing everything normally. Flight training has never been without risk…
Any instructor who has been instructing for any length of time has had students who froze at the controls. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of instructing. And it’s extremely hard to overcome the strength of such a student. So we can criticize the instructor for not responding quickly enough, but sometimes even a quick response will be very difficult to overcome the student’s mishandling.
My advice to the armchair critics: be kind—you don’t know what you’re talking about if you haven’t been there.
Failure of the CFI to understand and be prepared to act on the human condition on the student. Seems common these days.
So the pilot froze, and the CFI failed to grab the controls and save the day. Neither one of them should be allowed in a cockpit again.