An accident in San Diego revealed a serious story of unlicensed pilots flying an expensive business jet and nearly ended in tragedy.
Disclosure NTSB
The 2021 runway excursion took place at MontgomeryGibbs Airport, the main executive airport in the city of San Diego, California. On that occasion, a Dassault Falcon 900EX failed to take off, overshot the end of the runway and stalled in the airport area.
The NTSB launched an investigation, which found that one of the causes of the problem was a launch performed 1.3 tons over the model’s maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) and center of gravity very close to the frontal limit Adjusting the compensators.
It has been confirmed that the pilots were towing the aircraft 23 knots (42 km/h) below the calculated takeoff speed and that even if they had done so at the correct speed they would have left the runway by that weight Jet would require an additional 175 meters of runway length, which corresponds to 1,401 m.
After collecting this data, the NTSB focused on the factors that caused airmen to be so reckless, and the result was startling.
The commander did not have a valid license, having had his license revoked by the FAA (US Civil Aviation Administration) in 2019 for falsifying experience and entering incorrect flight control data at least 15 times while serving as an air taxi pilot. In addition, he never qualified for the Falcon 900, where he began training but never completed.
The copilot, on the other hand, even had experience with the jet model, but only had a flight time of 16 hours and was not qualified as captain, as he only qualified in the second control attempt (test). The copilot gained most of his experience on a helicopter flight.
Both were employed by the owner of the aircraft and were not operating a “flight of convenience” or anything of the sort. The commander was already flying other aircraft from the same owner and the copilot the same owner’s helicopter. The copilot spontaneously applied to fly the Falcon and then began the qualification course.
Upon completion of the investigations, it was concluded that the main reason for the accident was an illprepared crew with insufficient knowledge of the aircraft, resulting in a takeoff that was totally outside of the standards set by the manufacturer. You can view the full report in English by clicking here.