Rush to produce military pilots a factor behind CT-156 crash

A Royal Canadian Air Force investigation into the crash of a CT-156 at Moose Jaw in 2014 found that the loss of the training aircraft could have been avoided.

Beechcraft CT-156 Harvard II 156125 04
By Ahunt (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The student had been practicing landings under windy conditions and the person made a hard landing which damaged the undercarriage.

Instead of aborting the take-off, the instructor took the aircraft back in the air and an indicator light then illuminated to signal a problem with the landing gear.

A chase plane later confirmed that the gear was damaged and both crew members were forced to eject.

It was disclosed later that the instructor had been assigned to train the student at last minute and both did their pre-flight briefings for only 10 minutes.

Ovearall, investigators noted that a rush to produce 125 pilots each year had resulted in less training time for flight instructors and a cut in training on emergency landings.