Instructor duty of care

The President of the Aero Club and the Chief Flying Instructor had been attending a social function at a property some 20 minutes from the aerodrome. At 0230 hours, after an evening of drinking at a party, the pair plus another person, travelled to the aerodrome. There the President and the CFI moved a Microlight Zenith CH601-XL from the hangar and took off from the PAL lit runway. When they did not return the third person raised the alarm. The wreck and the deceased occupants were found next morning.

The wash out. The investigation revealed that the Zenith, although well instrumented, was restricted to ‘Day VFR Operations’ only. The CFI in the right seat held a commercial pilot licence and an instrument rating. His medical certificate was valid. He had logged 560 hours that included 12.2 night hours of which 7.9 were as pilot in command. He was not night current.

The club President held a private pilots licence. His medical had expired three months earlier. He had logged 220 hours but there was no record of any night flying experience.

The post-mortem examination revealed high blood alcohol levels in both pilots. A police witness statement taken from the third person indicated each pilot had consumed around 20 cans of beer during the evening before the flight. Possible use of cannabis by the left seat pilot in the hours before the flight was also detected

The accident report noted that the weather was unsuitable for VFR night flying. There were strong winds, passing rain and poor visibility. Indeed the weather was so bad at the time that the nearby aero medical helicopter pilot was forced to suspend operations.

This flight had all the cards stacked against a successful outcome. It was an unprepared night flight into less than VFR conditions by night un-current pilots. The aircraft was limited to day VFR use only. To cap it off the pilots had consumed a large amount of alcohol in the hours before the flight.

One has to ask what were these two pilots thinking. The CFI was aged 30 and the club President was 39. They were adults with life experience and CFI creditentials are not granted lightly.

This then brings us back to the theme of this column. When one takes up the mantel of a flying instructor one takes on responsibilities above and beyond what is taught at instructor school. Above and beyond the amount of the pay cheque.

The role of an instructor is to teach others how to fly an aircraft, and fly it safely. In doing so an instructor influences the thought processes of the student. Properly presented the student will take up the good processes but if exposed to bad influences will also take those up. Put another way it is a case of Monkey see, Monkey do. If the instructor does something in his or her instructing, air or ground, the student will pick up on that and copy.

In some ways the role of an instructor is not unlike being a gentleman of the cloth. That means the instructor is passing a message at any contact. Come across as a cowboy in thought, word, actions and appearance and the flight student will pick up on it with the notion that that is normal and ok to do.

In the event described above the CFI would appear to have tossed aside his instructing role, even if it was after hours, and become one of the boys. Even the club president should have known better. Positions of authority are positions of influence. Someone should have said ‘No’ to the flight.

“The role of an instructor is to teach others how to fly an aircraft, and fly it safely.”

We will never know who egged who on to go flying but the outcome was tragic. Tragic not only for the two in the aircraft but also for the people who were close to them. It is also clear that alcohol was a major factor in this accident.

The message that the event leaves is one that instructors can exert a strong influence over students, an influence that should only be good.
They have a moral, ethical and professional responsibility to their students to steer them along the sometimes narrow track to learn how to fly an aircraft safely. They have to be seen to be doing the right thing, at all times. Instructors are bound to a duty of care that extends beyond the close of business.

That was not the situation in the New Zealand accident the lessons of which pilots and instructors worldwide can learn from.

Contact Dave by email at [email protected]