Accidents
NTSB: Poor Pilot Training, Monitoring Led to Fatal C90 Accident
Pilot also violated company's sterile cockpit rules
Illustrated instrument panel of fatal C90 Accident
Illustrated instrument panel of the pilot attitude indicator and copilot or standby attitude indicator. © NTSB

An air ambulance company’s “inadequate pilot training and performance tracking” that failed to identify the pilot’s “consistent lack of skill” resulted in his spatial disorientation and loss of control of the turboprop twin while using secondary instruments after the electronic attitude direction indicator failed, according to a recently released NTSB final report.

The Dec. 15, 2022 fatal crash of the Beechcraft King Air C90 offshore Kaupo, Hawaii, killed the pilot and two other crewmembers. Contributing to the accident, said the report, “was the lack of a visible horizon during dark night [VMC] overwater conditions and the pilot’s failure to declare an emergency with ATC.”