VIVAERO First study surveys surviving pilots to understand causes of in-flight loss of control On average, four planes crash each day in the United States with almost all of aircraft involved being single-engine planes. One in five of those crashes were caused by in-flight loss of control, defined by the Federal Aviation Administration as "unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight." Nearly half of accidents caused by in-flight loss of control are fatal. New research from a University of Arkansas mechanical engineering assistant professor, Neelakshi Majumdar, investigates why in-flight loss of control occurs in general aviation, which includes all civil flights except for commercial transports of people or cargo, and how pilots can prevent and recover from it. The work could improve pilot training and save lives. The paper, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Air Transportation, is the first rigorous survey to ask surviving pilots why they experien...
