In May of 2022, a Twin Cessna 421C departed Houston Hobby airport on runway 12R. Right after liftoff an engine failure occurred and the pilots asked to come back in. The pilot lost the right engine which is the good engine and he took no evasive action to control the engine loss. He began a turn around toward the airport in a right hand turn and headed back to Runway 4.
The actions in the loss of the aircraft in a field just south of Houston Hobby showed that the pilot had no engine loss training. He failed to feather the right engine and he lowered the gear or he never pulled the gear up. This was a preventable accident.
At AST we teach a four step process that “cuts to the chase” on engine loss. This Twin Cessna did nothing and if he had taken our course he would have saved the plane and brought it back in safely.
The video that we have listed shows what he did and what he should have done if he had taken our training. Our four step process is drilled into every pilot so that it becomes automatic. All this pilot had to do is put the gear up after takeoff and as soon as he did and lost the engine if he would have just used our process he would easily have flown the aircraft back into the airport. There were only four people on board and luckily they were able to exit the plane. The left engine ended up burning.
The bottom line is if you have in your subconscious how to manage an engine loss on our four step process the chances are very good that it will fly and be manageable. Fly hard. Train safe.