Accident Overview
During an instructional flight conducted under visual meteorological conditions, the airplane departed from controlled flight, stalled, and entered a spin. The subsequent uncontrolled descent resulted in the airplane impacting desert terrain, where it was destroyed by impact forces. The wreckage was located over a 65-foot-wide, 122-foot-long north-northeasterly path less than one-quarter mile from the last radar recorded location. A circular area around the impact site was devoid of vegetation.
Flight Details
The purpose of the flight was for the flight school's instructor to provide initial training to a foreign student pilot, who was an instructor pilot in military aircraft. The flight was intended to familiarize the student with the airplane's flight characteristics prior to his enrollment in a test pilot program. The foreign pilot was not qualified to act as pilot-in-command of the accident airplane. The flight school's instructor was current in the accident airplane. The syllabus for the planned one-hour-long familiarization flight included stalls, with the landing gear and wing flaps retracted and extended, as well as velocity minimum control demonstrations. The instructor was to demonstrate a maneuver, followed by the student performing the maneuver.
A review of radar data indicated that the airplane was maneuvered through a series of stalls from 0847 until 0853. At 0853:20, the airplane's altitude indicated 5,900 feet. At 0853:49, the altitude indicated 3,500 feet, and the groundspeed decreased to 60 knots, where it remained until the airplane disappeared from radar at 0853:54. The airplane's radar position remained relatively constant during the final seconds of recorded flight, as the airplane descended at 5,000 feet per minute until impacting terrain at 2,600 feet mean sea level.
Wreckage Examination
Examination of the wreckage on-scene and after recovery revealed that the fuselage and cockpit structure were partially collapsed in a downward direction. Continuity of the flight control system was confirmed, and no evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunction was found. The airplane flight manual prohibited the performance of spins. No determination could be made as to which pilot may have been manipulating the controls at the time of the departure from controlled flight.
Pilot Information
The student pilot had accrued one flight in a multiengine airplane, with a flight time of 1.2 hours. His total flight time was about 1,531 hours, with the majority accrued in F16-type military aircraft. The instructor, who was the director of flight operations and the flying safety officer for the school, had a total flight time of about 5,767 hours. An estimated 122 hours had been accumulated in the accident make and model airplane, with 27.4 of those hours accumulated in the past year. The weight and balance data were found to be within acceptable limits for the flight.