TAKEOFF Gone Wrong | Accident Case Study

so you think an aborted takeoff is super easy well you know what i thought so i thought it was a total joke when i went through training how easy is it to just pull power back and stop on three thousand four thousand feet of remaining runway in front of you when you're with your cfi so my cfi reaches over and pulls the power back on the takeoff roll i come to a stop that's super easy what's so difficult about an aborted takeoff well obviously there's a little bit more that goes into it we're gonna look at that why did this aborted takeoff go so wrong what caused the pilot and the front seat passenger to break their backs in the backseat passenger to be fatally injured what decisions were made that led up to this scenario how did a relatively routine takeoff go so wrong in an airplane that had just flown recently before this is one of those times where we don't want to nitpick and armchair quarterback another pilot or try to throw under the bus and that's not what we're doing here but bottom line is some decisions were made that weren't so good some decisions were made that were just kind of downright stupid and i'll be the first to admit with thousands of hours of flying 10 years flying now that i could make these same decisions i could fall into these same traps that this pilot did if you think that aborted takeoffs are easy and that you would never do something this dumb then quit watching this video check out your subscription feed i'm sure there's others in there that are better but if you realize that even as an experienced pilot you can neglect a few things on your preflight check you can neglect a few things on the takeoff roll and you can get into a situation like this and you don't want to then keep watching we'll spend the next 10 minutes looking at what happened here trying to figure out why what looks like a routine takeoff with three people in a four four-seat airplane went so wrong and quite frankly it was destined to go wrong from the beginning we're going to work backwards with this question when was it clear that this airplane was going to crash obviously here it's pretty obvious was it obvious that it was going to crash here yeah i mean to us i think so was it obvious here well that's about the time the pilot realized yeah i'm not going to make it i'm not going to clear the fence i'm not going to clear this berm he reduced power and he accepted the crash probably with a lot of regret and a lot of very nasty stomach churning feelings at this point realizing that he just wrecked his airplane and he just hurt two of his friends really bad and himself most likely but why just seconds before that not even seconds a second or two was he trying to fly the airplane was it obvious the airplane was going to crash here well it was obvious that at this point it had two options crash overrun the runway and break the airplane or try to fly so he made a decision try to fly the airplane should he have made this decision sooner what was the performance data on this airplane he was on a 2000 foot long runway sounds good enough but what does this airplane actually need to take off well according to the book only 13.50 so that's good so we checked the book it said 1350. of course that's with a good running engine so 13.50 we should be off the ground with about 700 feet almost a runway remaining but they weren't they were still on the ground at the end of the runway what's the rule that we know as pilots that we're supposed to know about when to abort a takeoff when you think the airplane's not going to fly when you're nervous about it when it doesn't seem right when your gut tells you to what rule does the faa have what's the 50-70 rule what does that mean to us the 50-70 rule that the fa has that applies to really any general aviation airplane on any runway surface is achieve seventy percent of your rotation speed fifty percent of the way down the runway or abort the take off fifty percent of the way down the runway you make a decision continue the takeoff or stop did he follow that rule i don't know and quite frankly i disagree with the fa i'm going to call bs on that rule i think it's a useless rule for general aviation i think for your average general aviation pilot it's a terrible rule to follow that it will only lead to more accidents if you actually try to do that try to do that crazy math in your head i make it a little simpler and try to give myself a little bit more cushion for what we're doing here 50 of the way down the runway achieve rotation speed be at a point where your airplane is ready to fly how do you know because you've achieved a speed at which the airplane will fly rotation speed or better by 50 of the way down the runway airspeed is still increasing you see that needle trend moving or on your glass cockpit you see that trend vector showing increasing airspeed you check your gauges everything looks good good rpm everything's in the green and in your button in your back and in those fingertips you feel the aircraft is ready to fly three criteria airspeed engines or instruments and the feeling of the aircraft being ready to fly if any of those three criteria are not met and you're halfway down the runway it's an immediate powered idle apply the brakes maybe retract flaps do whatever it takes to get the airplane stopped and maintain directional control it doesn't have to be complicated seventy percent of rotation speed what's rotation speed what's this what's just if you're halfway down your runway and the airplane's not in the air keep it on the ground stop and figure out why and you can say well but john i use the fa's rule because it gives me a little more utility in my airplane it's not as conservative but why do i have to be so conservative i mean the book says 1350 and i'm on a 2000 foot long runway that's plenty you're telling me basically that i need to if the book says 1350 i need a 2700 foot long runway that's excessive okay yeah sure well you want to take off and land short and i get it i think you know we know something about that right we have some other videos where we take off and land short in airplanes i've taken off in an airplane and landed and done all that in under 200 feet 72 foot takeoff 108 foot landing yeah we know something about that we're also doing that at a stole competition on an 1800 foot long runway with tons of space at the end before we get to any sort of obstacle okay what about when you're in the back country you're flying on short strips sure like here 500 foot long strip not a lot of room for error right but guess what i only need 200 feet or less to be in the air if i'm not in the air by 200 feet guess what power comes to idle immediately not even 50 of the way down the runway i got 300 feet to still stop and then when i do rotate at 200 and i'm off guess what i have no obstacles i have some obstacles i have to turn around but nothing i have to climb and clear so even in the backcountry even when you watch these youtube videos that guy's taking off and landing super short there's a lot of safety factors a lot of safety margin still built in that might not be obvious i understand you want to get the most utility out of your aircraft and you have a four seat airplane that goes super fast you want to load three other people in there probably not the best idea so let's rewind a little bit more we're halfway down the runway should we have stopped yeah could we have stopped oh yeah 1000 feet to get this airplane stopped for sure check the poh you can get it stopped in a thousand feet wouldn't even go off the end of the runway wouldn't even hit the grass why didn't he make the decision to stop and rewind a little bit more when was at first obvious for the pilot or when should it have been obvious that this airplane was going to crash or not perform as expected right when he set power sound spectrum analysis from the ntsb on this video says the rpm was 2430 2430 rpm takeoff rpm's 2700. right from the get-go he was 270 rpm short the magnetos weren't timed correctly pilots don't know that we're not supposed to know that you don't need to know things about magneto timing and really intense mechanical things to be a pilot what you do need to know is your minimum rpm for takeoff and if you don't achieve it you don't need to know why the engine's not doing it you just need to know it's not okay to go fly and you need to not try to go fly if you don't have the right numbers if you don't have 2 700 rpm or minimum rpm from the poh from the tcds for that airplane you abort right from the get-go now in addition to that you would have done a weight and balance on this airplane right of course and actually this pilot did he did a weight in balance he figured it all on his ipad and he said yeah i'm actually a little bit under gross weight so this should work a little error there where'd you get your empty weight from man uh i googled it you googled your empty weight on your airplane you typed in your tail number and found that empty weight is there anywhere inside the aircraft you might have looked for the weight and balance data any thing we recite on private pilot check rides a lot like arrow like the weight and balance data is con contained in the aircraft and in the aircraft maintenance logbooks you think maybe that number would have been a little more specific to your aircraft maybe the empty weight you used was 141 pounds lighter than your aircraft actually was and you were 78 pounds over gross weight when you attempted this takeoff so some errors made yeah don't use empty weights on google you can say oh i would never do that don't try to take off when your rpm's below what it's supposed to be you'd say oh i won't do that do you even know what the minimum rpm is for your airplane you might want to check it might be a good number to know don't go past halfway down the runway and still be on the ground well i i have a short runway so you know that's normal at my airport why are you operating there why couldn't you just had your passengers drive 10 miles away and pick them up at the airport with the 8000 foot long runway hate to say it it's not like it's a good thing but even with this airplane being overweight and the engine not producing full power there probably would not have been an accident if they had used an 8 000 foot long runway instead of a 2000 foot long one there's some safety margin built into these airplanes that we must absolutely positively never try to take advantage of or exploit you stick to the numbers and give yourself some room for error there never proceed past halfway down the runway and not be in the air never try to force the airplane off but never go past halfway never let your abort point be more than halfway and if you're saying well this runway that i wanted to land at or operate out is too short well then unload your airplane make it lighter make it perform so that you're off within halfway that you can easily accelerate to flying speed and still reduce power and abort and come to a complete stop this accident was 100 pilot error there's no way about it you can say oh well he had mechanical trouble and you know the math didn't quite add up that's all on us as pilots 91.7 you're the ultimate authority to the safe operation flight you're the ultimate authority to decide that this airplane is airworthy you need to know just enough about maintenance to know that your engine is healthy and producing good power you need to know just enough that well the numbers on google might not be the right numbers for your specific airplane and you need to be operating with enough room for error that when things do go wrong and you do make a dumb mistake like google your empty weight then it doesn't come to bite you or kill your friend that's sitting behind you other things that were factors in this accident that the ntsb identified the two front seaters broke their backs they had shoulder harnesses on the backseater died he had a lap belt on he elected not to use his shoulder harness that was actually there also what they cited was the fact that the headrests were removed from the aircraft that might have saved his life the airplane was built with headrests you might want to keep those headrests in your airplane if it came with it or possibly get them installed if there's an stc available for it this airplane was going to crash right from the get-go as soon as he applied full power and released the brakes and the engine wasn't producing full power it was going to crash it wasn't guaranteed to crash they weren't guaranteed to get hurt until somewhere around here he still could have accepted that he made a mistake and damaged the aircraft and they could have walked away but trying to salvage it try not to embarrass yourself trying not to let your ego get hurt trying to not let your friends down trying to make it happen makes the situation worse why was he in this situation in the first place why are you in a four-seat airplane with three pretty big guys all over 200 pounds a good chunk of fuel and 120 pounds of baggage could your friends not have just driven 10 miles to another airport and flown off the 8 000 foot long runway well they'd say oh god that's a 45 minute drive in this traffic so you don't want to let them down you feel that pressure maybe you say oh yeah you and bill you guys want to go golfing yeah we can take my plane it's awesome you know and you talk it up who of us hasn't said to someone in conversation oh yeah we could go flying later on or to a co-worker to a neighbor sure let's go flying let's go grab a hundred dollar hamburger let's go golfing over here you make that promise you open your mouth oh sure we'll take your kids flying and then you realize oh man me and him and two kids man am i it's pretty hot out i don't know if that's gonna work so good but you feel pressured cause you talked yourself into it or what happens when somebody says you're a pilot you can fly us i don't wanna drive six hours if we could fly it in an hour your airplane can do it right bill sure it can yeah and you feel pressure you don't want to let them down your ego your self-esteem your self-image do you really have what it takes in you to say no actually i can't do that my airplane oh yeah you have four seats right yeah but it doesn't really carry four people what do you mean come on you have four seats we can all fit in there you call me fat and it's really hard and difficult to tiptoe around that and say well look it just doesn't have the performance numbers for it it's got four seats but that engine just isn't that strong it's an old airplane it's 1960 1970 whatever i don't feel comfortable with it it doesn't meet my personal standards i've set for myself as a pilot to make sure i have an adequate safety margin and now you sound like a jerk now your neighbor your co-worker whoever's kind of mad at you annoyed thinks you're a crappy pilot do you have enough self-esteem and self-worth to be able to say those things to be able to own it and stick to it and not budge you have to stand for something otherwise you'll fall for anything as the saying goes stand for what you know works stand for your personal minimums stand for safety and explain to them in a calm clear voice look this is how i keep myself and my passenger safe my airplane isn't actually that fast it can't get in and out of that strip i know somebody else can but my airplane can't and they won't understand if they're not pilots or the worst is when your neighbor who was a private pilot 20 years ago says oh yeah you can fly us in that mooney and we'll load up the golf clubs and do all the stuff yeah it can do it you totally can you go no no i really can't actually no it's going to be a little overweight oh come on over it's fine a few pounds doesn't matter you're going to have to have enough self-esteem enough self-worth enough confidence in your own abilities to stand up for what you know works you're the pilot you're it you're the pilot in command the ultimate authority for the safety of that flight you have to be confident in your abilities you have to understand the limitations of your aircraft the limitations of yourself your own personal abilities and you have to be okay with that and you have to let others be okay with it too and if they're not you might lose some friends over it actually you might make some people upset it's a tough situation to be in but this situation is a lot tougher and it's a lot tougher after the fact too if you actually live through it as pilots we have to be willing to stand up to our passengers to our husbands wives girlfriends kids neighbors co-workers we have to be willing to stand up to atc we have to do what it takes to maintain the safety of flight for us and our passengers and everyone around us now if you got into aviation to try to make friends impress people boast about it tell everyone that you're a pilot and how cool you are this probably isn't the hobby for you if you're trying to do this to make yourself feel better about yourself to build up your own ego this is going to end terribly for you aviation demands humility these accidents can happen anyone the decisions the thoughts and the situations the external pressures that lead up to this are felt by everyone in aviation and in everyday life we feel these external pressures being able to communicate with people about your own skill ability and about the abilities of an aircraft you own or rent is crucial it's required it's demanded of you as a pilot it's demanded of you as a human being in everyday life to not promise more than you can give to not write checks you can't cover aviation will uncover any weaknesses when you talk about something make promises that you can't keep you will be found out and sometimes cases like these in the worst way it's important to be able to communicate these things to our friends our neighbors our co-workers the people around us that think we're so cool because we're pilots and we can fly them places and a lot of times we just can't we can't get you there faster than driving we can't go in this weather we can't go on that airport we can't go on that runway we can't take that load we can't take that many people there's four seats but we can only take one or two and if you communicate that to them but more importantly how you communicate it to them if you explain to them from a sense that you actually care and you genuinely care about their safety and yours not just your own safety not just your own self-image not just how people think about you but you genuinely care about their safety and that they're not going to be in an unsafe situation that it's actually quicker for them to drive anyways if you genuinely care it'll show they'll know you won't lose friends you won't make people upset they might be a little bummed or disappointed you can't sell a flight because of weather it's blue skies here but it's not good in route blue sky is here in blue sky's the destination but you know it's just not the right time to go you have to be able to from a confident standpoint explain that to the people you fly with explain that to your passengers explain to atc when you just simply can't do something it's not about being good enough having the right stuff the right stuff is standing up for yourself being confident in your own abilities and knowing your limitations and limitations of the aircraft you might think this was a low time pilot that did this this guy had 3 000 hours he was rated in helicopters had a lot of ratings a lot of experience 100 hours in the make and model enough time to hopefully know what a normal takeoff looks like normal acceleration looks like but those external pressures can play a big role you can say boy it's sluggish but we got two big guys in here and a bunch of stuff boy the end of the runway's coming but just keep throwing the coals to it we'll get airborne no realize that you're in a bad situation if you open your mouth and you commit to something yeah both of us can go flying all three of us can go and we'll take the bags the golf bags and all that stuff even if you fire up taxi out to the runway and you feel that feeling in the pit of your stomach knowing this isn't good turn around taxi back to the hangar apologize you miscalculated it's not going to work maybe it's not going to work today maybe it'll work tomorrow maybe it won't work at all for your airplane maybe you got to make two trips it's a lot better to be a little late making two trips or postpone a flight than to never arrive in the first place this is something that can happen any of us that's the takeaway here slow things down realize how you can fall into these seemingly innocent traps oh engine that's a little weak being on a shorter runway just trying to go a little bit more load a little more weight you already promised these guys what are you gonna do you can't go to another airport it's too far for them to drive it's inconvenient you're trying to impress somebody you have to be confident in your own abilities you have to have enough self-worth without aviation to be able to survive in aviation that's the takeaway from this video slow it down think ask yourself how is this accident report going to read are people going to think i was dumb for making this flight or trying to achieve it if things don't go perfectly right that's what i want you guys to think about if you have questions on this on this accident case if you have questions on anything in general the link is in the description below to fly my alpha.com there's a button at the top of the website that says ask a question click on it you'll be able to talk to one of our cfis remember that this can happen to anybody remember that these promises we make to our friends lead to so many accidents when we don't know how to say no even at the last minute even when you're at the whole short line it's still okay to say no not until you're here is it too late think about that be safe out there guys and we'll see you all in the next one [Applause] you

Channel: FLY8MA.com Flight Training

Views: 305,812

Keywords: airplane crash, airplane accident, accident case study, asi, aopa, air safety institute, powerless over paris, mooney, m20, crash, student pilot, fly8ma, fly8ma.com, private pilot, learn to fly, ntsb, what you haven't seen, flying, takeoff, landing, accident, mooney m20

Id: wYRN-sWK8qc

Length: 22min 17sec (1337 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 30 2020