good article on a KingAir that crashed in Roma (?) after the pilot suffered the somatogravic illusion -
Must say I had doubts about the somatogravic illusion theory on light aircraft. With the number of light aircraft and jets operating around Australia into black night conditions why are there not aircraft crashing all over the place if the somatogravic medical event is so prevalent on take off.
I can understand the problem with aircraft being catapulted of aircraft carriers into a black ocean scene but we don't hear much of these aircraft pranging either.
I sometimes wonder if the real cause of these accidents such as the Roma Baron, is simply poor instrument flying scan especially when faced with a take off into a pitch black night immediately after lift off. The Roma crash was put down to somatogravic syndrome because there is no doubt this problem exists under certain acceleration conditions. But it was a theory only in the Roma crash. The actual cause of the pilot flying into the ground was purely guesswork by ATSB. Does the illusion only affect inexperienced pilots or is it across the board with airline pilots too. I suspect too much is read into this sort of explanation rather than a hard look at the competency of the pilot at basic instrument flying skills when faced with no horizon.