Crash update

[Bill3558]

It’s been a little over a year since my crash. I had a call from my insurance investigator today. He was extremely frustrated with the NTSB dragging their feet. He said they were more interested in being woke and having diversity then they were in investigating aircraft accidents. Bottom line the official cause will be “inconclusive” and it will probably be 2 years before they publish that. No one ever looked at the engine or the disconnected oil return lines. The mechanic that did the annual is off the hook. 
In case your not familiar, here is the accident report. 

I’ve moved on. But nothing was learned.Report_ERA22LA011_104085_10_13_2022 11_00_59 AM.pdfReport_ERA22LA011_104085_10_13_2022 11_00_59 AM.pdfReport_ERA22LA011_104085_10_13_2022 11_00_59 AM.pdfReport_ERA22LA011_104085_10_13_2022 11_00_59 AM.pdf

[Madhatter]

Welcome to the new world

[Towner]

That’s pretty sad. It seems it would take very little effort for them to investigate and make an obvious determination as to what caused the accident. I think most of us could make that determination based on your prior posts.

Well, still glad you are ok and I guess insurance can deal with the rest…

[Madhatter]

I talked to a recently retired senior FAA inspector today who told me more than likely LSA doesn't get them too motivated as opposed to certified aircraft especially with no injuries. This has been my experience with some senior managers who were not interested in getting involved with light sport. This has been told to me in person. I know a lot of them don't understand LSA, they are trained to deal with certified where they have jurisdiction over the maintenance. You can't even use LSA inspections to qualify for IA renewal requirements. But look at the bright side, there is less chance of FAA intrusion into LSA issues.

[Mike Koerner]

Here's another possible perspective:

The job of the NTSB is to save lives. No lives will be saved by declaring that so and so left a hose clamp off. The so and so is probably already being real care now anyway. And it's not like it's some new revelation. Every other mechanic already knows this.

So, the report is just going to decide which insurance company buys Bill a new airplane. Either way, our insurance rates or our mechanic's rates go up, and we are all eventually going to buy the plane - which is as it should be.

Determining why a commercial airline or a train crashed on the other hand, can potentially save a lot of lives. And they're innocent public lives. Not a pilot who willfully chose to fly a plane that was never even certified by the FAA.

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

8 hours ago, Madhatter said:

But look at the bright side, there is less chance of FAA intrusion into LSA issues.

Exactly, that's why I decided to buy the E-Props in flight adjustable option, very impressed with the performance.  Ok, I'm joking here.  But I have put it in the cart on website and looked at costs, damn that would be so nice.

[Madhatter]

I don't believe NTSB gets involved in this type of nonfatal GA accident,  it's the local FSDO responsibility. I have been very close to some senior inspectors and managers in SC FSDO for many years and they handled accidents like this. The issue today is that the new inspectors have limited or no field experience and mostly push pencils. You used to be required to have 15yrs of field experience to work as a maintenance inpector. Not any more, it has all changed.  While there are still some older experienced ones left there are not many. 

[Bill3558]

I agree. They have bigger fish to fry. 

[Jim Meade]

On 10/14/2022 at 7:39 AM, Madhatter said:

I don't believe NTSB gets involved in this type of nonfatal GA accident,  it's the local FSDO responsibility. I have been very close to some senior inspectors and managers in SC FSDO for many years and they handled accidents like this. The issue today is that the new inspectors have limited or no field experience and mostly push pencils. You used to be required to have 15yrs of field experience to work as a maintenance inpector. Not any more, it has all changed.  While there are still some older experienced ones left there are not many. 

What do you mean by responsibility?  Do you mean they are given the task of investigating, or do you mean the FSDO draws the conclusions and makes the report?  If the latter, I'd be learning something new as I had not understood that to be an FAA or FSDO role.

[Anticept]

The FSDOs often pull double duty and do crash investigation. Mine was crashed by a student in 2015, and it was an ASI that came out and did the investigation.

Serious accidents with fatalities are the ones that get actual NTSB investigators. Outside of that, there just isn't enough resources for the NTSB to investigate everything.

[Madhatter]

The FAA inspectors I have known for many years investigate the accident and write a report on it. Where the report goes from there I don't know. I have discussed a number of these investigations with them and have even been asked to get involved in one. Some of the investigations were very serious and involved federal court cases. These occurred years ago and the inspectors were very experienced and competent. I don't know what the protocols are now but things have changed,  most younger inspectors don't have the experience and background. That is not to say they are incompetent but just don't have the broad background the older guys have. This is one reason field approvals are not done as in years ago. The FSDO chief for SC told me this in person. It is difficult to get experienced people,  I was asked to join the SC several times but I declined. I would not make a good beurocrate. 

[Jim Meade]

My point is NTSB is responsible for accident reporting.  They may ask FAA FSDO to support, but NTSB is the final authority.  Be careful of giving FAA more authority than they have.