Stalls

Are basic lessons being forgotten?

In the normal schedule of training the stalling session comes at about flight lesson number eight. It is unfortunate to record that in several notable airline accidents the basics of what is taught in the stalling lesson appears to have been forgotten.

First there was the Air Midwest Flight 5481, a Beechcraft 1900D that crashed on takeoff at Charlotte, North Carolina on January 8 2003. Then there was the Colgan Air Flight 3407, a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 that went down on approach to Buffalo Niagara Airport on February 12 2009. That was followed by Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330 that went down in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 2009.