ERA20FA003

During a training flight, the pilot receiving instruction “froze on the controls” during a demonstration of a power-off stall. He did not respond to the flight instructor’s commands to release the controls, and the instructor was unable to overpower the pilot’s control inputs. The airplane remained in a stall condition, descended, impacted marshland, and sustained substantial damage to the wings and forward fuselage. The airplane’s altitude at the start of the descent was not captured by radar data; however, the airplane had previously been flying at altitudes of 100 to 500 ft mean sea level in the practice area about 1.5 minutes before radar altitude data was lost.

On October 5, 2019, at 1609 eastern daylight time, a Champion 7ECA, N2561G, was substantially damaged after it impacted marshland in the Florida Everglades near Pembroke Pines, Florida. The flight instructor and commercial pilot sustained serious injuries. The instructional flight was conducted under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. According to the flight instructor, prior to the departure, he briefed the pilot receiving instruction about the plans for the flight. This included performing stalls and “falling leaf maneuvers,” followed by landing practice at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), Opa Locka, Florida. After the briefing, they boarded the airplane and departed from North Perry Airport (HWO), Hollywood, Florida, about 1555 to the west toward a local practice area in the Florida Everglades. Radar data obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that was consistent with the accident airplane’s track revealed that the airplane departed HWO and flew westerly at altitudes between 1,500 and 1,800 ft above mean sea level (msl). After it reached the Everglades, it continued to the west and descended to altitudes varying between about 100 and 400 ft. About 3.5 nautical miles west of the Everglades shoreline, at an altitude of about 400 ft and groundspeed of about 90 knots, the airplane began a level turn to the left. During the turn, the altitude varied between 400 and 500 ft, and the groundspeed varied between 90 and 100 knots. As the airplane completed a 180° of turn, the radar system was no longer able to track the airplane’s altitude. The radar continued to track the position of the airplane for another 1.5 minutes as it flew in a southeasterly direction until radar contact was lost at 1608, about ½-mile southwest of the accident site. The flight instructor reported that during a basic power-off stall demonstration, the pilot receiving instruction “froze on the controls with the elevator in the full up position.” The instructor was “unable to overpower him and push the controls forward to break the stall.” The pilot “did not respond to any of [his] commands to ‘let go of the controls’ [and] as a result he held us in the stalled condition until we impacted the Everglades in a slightly nose low and slightly right-wing-low attitude.” The flight instructor further reported that there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The commercial pilot was not available for an interview in the weeks following the accident due to his injuries. He did not respond to subsequent requests for information or return the NTSB Pilot/Operator accident reporting form. Toxicology testing was performed at the FAA Forensic Sciences Laboratory. The results were negative for alcohol and drugs of abuse for the pilot and flight instructor. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane came to rest upright, leaning towards the left and partially submerged in water.All major components of the airplane were present at the accident site. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing, which was separated from the fuselage at the root and remained largely intact. The right wing was partially separated at the root, with leading edge damage at the tip and forward of the aileron. The right wing was bent upward and downward along its span, forward of the aileron. It was also crushed from top and bottom along most of its length. According to FAA airman records, the flight instructor held an airline transport pilot certificate with ratings for airplane multi-engine land and rotorcraft-helicopter. He held commercial pilot privileges for airplane single and multi-engine land, single and multi-engine sea, glider, and rotorcraft-gyroplane. He held instructor ratings for airplane single- and multiengine, helicopter, gyroplane, instrument airplane, and instrument helicopter. He reported 15,400 hours of total flight experience, of which 2,000 were in the same make and model as the accident airplane. Of those, 1,700 hours were as an instructor. According to FAA airman records, the pilot receiving instruction held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine land and instrument airplane. An undated resume indicated he had accrued a total of 343 hours of flight experience. The FAA Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3B) recommends “stalls be practiced at an altitude that allows recovery no lower than 1,500 feet AGL for single-engine airplanes, or higher if recommended by the [pilot operating handbook].”