scope:

Description of Driving Event:

The Dryden Flight Research Center's Learjet Model 24, call sign NASA 805, sustained substantial damage during a planned "touch and go" landing at the Southern California Air Logistics Base (formerly George Air Force Base), near Victorville, CA on June 7, 2001. There were no injuries to the pilot, co-pilot, or the observer in the course of this event.

The Learjet was used on an infrequent basis as a research testbed. The aircraft had just returned to flight status from an extended period in flyable storage. This type of usage did not permit the assigned aircrew to maintain currency. The flight was a scheduled recurrency flight. There was inadequate guidance in the areas of piloting duties, crew pairing, recurrency requirements, and restrictions to carrying passengers. The daily flight supervision process was inadequate to mitigate the lack of DOP-0-300 guidance.

The supervisory process did not provide adequate policy, procedures, nor oversight and insight for aircrew conducting flights to ensure significant qualifications, training and currency were met. The direct causes of this mishap were identified as:

1. Over control of the aircraft by the copilot (pilot flying) leading to an aggravated roll oscillation, hard landing, loss of control, and subsequent impact. A significant factor was the copilot's limited total piloting experience, particularly in high performance jet aircraft and in the Learjet.

2. Failure of the pilot in command (pilot not flying) to recognize the deteriorating situation in time to recover the aircraft. A significant factor was the pilot in command's lack of currency in the Learjet, and his low overall experience in the Learjet.

3. The combination of an inexperienced copilot flying an aircraft with a pilot in command who was not current in the aircraft and who had relatively little time in type.