'How could this accident have been prevented?'
If that sounds like an awkward start to a conversation with a weather briefer, it's fortunate that there are more nimble methods of retroactively building a picture of the weather in a given location at a recent date and time. If you ever have an aircraft accident--applying the operative, official definition of the word accident--you could find yourself performing this kind of research. That's because a government form required to be filled out after an accident asks the pilot questions that he may have been unable to answer before the flight.
Student pilots study federal regulations during training. Among the assigned scrolls is the relatively brief NTSB 830, in which the National Transportation Safety Board spells out a pilot's reporting obligations after an accident, and explains whether an event qualifies as an accident for reporting purposes. ("Aircraft accident means an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage." The section also provides a definition of substantial damage and serious injury.) Questions about NTSB rules governing mishaps may appear on a knowledge test, or during a checkride. If a pilot has a safe and fortunate career in the air, he may never need to see the NTSB form or answer questions about what went wrong.
Unlike the familiar single-sheet forms pilots encounter on a routine basis, NTSB 6120 (Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report) consists of 11 pages, providing instructions (two pages), checkboxes, lists, rosters, a flight-time itemization form, and blank spaces for descriptions and post-accident explanations. If you didn't think about all that before your mishap, you'll think about it after.
Among the concluding items on Form 6120 are a space for providing a narrative history of the flight, and then there's a request for a recommendation: "How could this accident/incident have been prevented?" That's a question most pilots would ask themselves after an accident/incident anyway, but having to answer the question for the record focuses the mind--and sometimes the answer is considered of sufficient value to be included in the accident summaries you can view online. Some of the other information requested in the form also shows up in online accident summaries. Searching by keywords in the database is helpful if a pilot wishes to study examples of certain kinds of accidents.
For instance, most pilots can use some practice flying final approach at a predetermined airspeed. What better way to focus on that training goal than to make an arrival at a short strip? On August 13, 2007, a commercial pilot flying a Cessna 182 ran off the end of 1,900-foot grass Runway 10 in Montrose, Pennsylvania. The Cessna went down an embankment and flipped over as two eyewitnesses looked on. "The 1,240-hour commercial pilot reported on NTSB Form 6120.1 that he flew the airplane at '70 knots, and upon touchdown, didn't get on brakes right away.' The pilot added that "when I did it was too late, I slowed to about 10 mph and ran off the runway, down an embankment, and flipped over," said the NTSB's online accident summary. Fortunately, the uninjured pilot was able to exit the aircraft unassisted.
The witnesses' accounts described a fast approach and a touchdown well down the runway. The airport manager described the runway surface as well kept and dry. Winds were 330 at 11 gusting to 18 knots. That would have added about an eight-knot crosswind component to the approach and increased the aircraft's groundspeed by seven knots (plus gust factors).
The NTSB held the probable cause to be "The pilot's failure to attain the proper touchdown point. A contributing factor was the prevailing tailwind."
A few weeks later, another fast approach damaged a Cessna 172 that hit hard and porpoised while being flown by a 28-hour student pilot who was landing in sequence behind a twin-engine aircraft in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The student reportedly had maintained an approach speed 10 knots higher than usual. The student's comments reveal considerable discomfort with the situation that was developing, and lament his lack of success devising the correct remedy. In the completed NTSB Form 6120 provided by the student pilot, he recommended that, to prevent further accidents, ATC controllers should not place student pilots between faster aircraft in the traffic pattern, where the student pilots may feel rushed. The pilot also recommended additional training in straight-in approaches.
Not a bad point about faster traffic in the pattern, and about training that covers the variety of traffic patterns a pilot might be asked to fly at a tower-controlled airport. What actions might a student pilot take before finding himself in a position to land out of control? Saying "unable" to a controller on receipt of an unsatisfactory clearance is any pilot's prerogative; many students need frequent, repeated reassurance on that point. Performing a go-around is another remedy, but instructors must reinforce this common-sense alternative.
Even studying a blank Form 6120 may have preventive value, in that it makes a pilot realize that its detailed questions about a flight do not have to be researched after the fact. Flight instructors might consider requiring some of their bolder students, or remedial cases, to practice filling out a few 6120s for therapeutic purposes before a day's flight--as a way of sobering them.
An aside to CFIs: When having your newest or boldest students work with Form 6120, make sure they don't confuse it with the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) form that a pilot can file with NASA when an unintentional violation of regulations might lead to certificate action by the FAA.
So there it is--more than you ever wanted to know, perhaps--about NTSB Form 6120, and probably the first time you've seen it offered as a training tool. If your curiosity is piqued, peek at the form. Then, know as many answers as possible before your upcoming flight. And next time you feel tempted to shortcut a preflight inspection, skip a weather briefing, or stretch your fuel, remember that tonight's homework could include the essay question: How could this accident/incident have been prevented?
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight instructor. A pilot since 1985 and an instructor since 1990, he resides in Maine.
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