Is flight experience a causal factor in preventable general aviation LOC-I accidents

The general aviation (GA) sector in the United States is losing pilots at an alarming rate each year due to a phenomenon known as loss of control in flight (LOC-I). This issue has plagued aviation since its inception and is now the leading cause of GA accidents in the U.S. While exceeding the angle of attack (AOA) explains how a pilot may lose control of their aircraft in flight, the underlying reasons why pilots find themselves vulnerable to this anomaly remain unclear. This quantitative causal-comparative research study aimed to determine if inexperienced GA pilots with fewer than 300 hours of flight time are more susceptible to LOC-I than those with more than 300 hours. Data for this study were gathered by querying the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) archival accident database CAROL (Case Analysis and Reporting Online) to identify GA LOC-I accidents occurring from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2019. The findings from the ten-year data analysis reveal that LOC-I was the leading cause of accidents and fatalities in GA, accounting for one accident every two days and one fatal accident every four days. The results from this study also showed a significant decrease in LOC-I accidents as pilots accumulated additional flight time. Utilizing Microsoft Excel’s© Frequency function on the final dataset of 1,465 LOC-I accidents showed that pilots with less than 300 flight hours were involved in 404 LOC-I accidents, while pilots who logged between 1,200 to 1,500 hours were involved in 86 LOC-I accidents. According to the literature, there seems to be a consensus among key industry experts that some novice pilots are not adequately prepared to handle upset conditions due to a lack of understanding of AOA, while more experienced pilots may fall victim to LOC-I situations because of complacency or a lack of proficiency. The overall findings of this research suggest that industry regulators should consider the opinions of experts advocating for mandatory changes in loss of control training and the integration of AOA indicator technology in the cockpit to mitigate a threat that has taken one too many lives.