Flight School, Airline Face Lawsuit After Fatal Training Accident

The $27 million wrongful death lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County, Oregon, by the family of Barrett Bevacqua names Hillsboro Aero Academy along with Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, and its training arm Ascend Academy, in connection with the crash of the twin engine aircraft in October 2023, Portland’s KGW-TV reported. Both Bevacqua and the instructor were killed when the aircraft came down vertically into an occupied house in Newberg. A back seat passenger was severely injured. No one on the ground was hurt.

According to the preliminary report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Bevacqua had recently earned his commercial certificate for a single-engine aircraft. The accident flight was his first training flight in pursuit of the commercial certificate for multiengine aircraft.

 NTSB said that the operator told the safety agency that, "it is common for the first multiengine training flight to include slow flight, power-off stalls, power-on stalls, accelerated stalls, minimum control airspeed (V_MC) demonstration, emergency maneuvers, and steep turns.

"....Multiple witnesses located near the accident site reported observing the airplane in level flight before it pitched downward and entered a near-vertical descent. The airplane continued in a nose-low, near-vertical descent until the airplane went out of visual range. Several witnesses described the airplane as 'spinning' or 'spiraling' during various phases of the vertical descent.”

Video of the accident airplane captured from the ground showed the twin in a spin. 

In order to spin, an aircraft must be slowed down and stalled. Multiengine pilots are warned that multiengine aircraft are more susceptible to spins when a stall happens and the aircraft airspeed falls below the published minimum controllable airspeed, especially when one engine is not producing power. The aircraft will roll to the side with the "dead" engine. 

The NTSB said that, according to the flight school, slow flight practice is common during the training flights.

The lawsuit, however, alleged that the instructor may have "allowed the aircraft to slow down below safe and permissible... minimum speeds, which caused the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall resulting in a spin," Portland’s KATU-TV reported.

Per the FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook, Chapter 12, which covers multiengine aircraft, "an engine inoperative—loss of directional control demonstration, often referred to as a V_MC demonstration, is a required task on the practical test for a multiengine class rating. A thorough knowledge of the factors that affect V_MC , as well as its definition, is essential for multiengine pilots, and as such an essential part of that required task. V_MC is a speed established by the manufacturer, published in the AFM/POH, and marked on most airspeed indicators with a red radial line. The multiengine pilot must understand that V_MC is not a fixed airspeed under all conditions. V_MC is a fixed airspeed only for the very specific set of circumstances under which it was determined during aircraft certification." 

The text goes on to state "the V_MC noted in practice and demonstration, or in actual single-engine operation, could be less or even greater than the published value, depending upon conditions and technique."

V_MC is achieved by reducing power on one engine and slowly raising the nose of the aircraft to bleed off airspeed. The pilot must bank approximately 5 degrees into the engine producing power and increase rudder force to maintain control of the aircraft. If the airspeed falls below V_MC, the aircraft can stall and roll into the dead engine, entering a stall and possibly a spin. Getting a multiengine aircraft out of a spin is challenging as they descend more rapidly than single engine aircraft so the pilot can run out of altitude and time.

According to KATU, the complaint states the aircraft's uncontrolled descent was "over 8,000 feet per minute," and during the descent the occupants of the aircraft "knew they were in trouble and going to crash and die."

Alaska Airlines replied to FLYING’s request for comment with a statement.

“Horizon Air partners with Hillsboro Aero Academy as part of the Ascend Pilot Academy, where Mr. Bevacqua was enrolled at the time of this training accident in 2023,” the statement read. “We are devastated by Mr. Bevacqua’s passing and continue to extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends. With respect to the lawsuit filed by Mr. Bevacqua’s family, Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines do not comment on active litigation as a matter of course.”