The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is urging the Federal Aviation Administration and Textron Aviation to quickly address factors preceding deadly crashes of two Hawker business jets during stall-test flights, citing concern about repeat incidents.
The NTSB is also calling on trade group National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) to communicate to its members that pilots might not be adequately trained to perform post-maintenance stall tests.
“The NTSB is concerned that the pilots tasked to perform the post-maintenance stall test flights required for Hawker 750, 800, 800XP, 850XP and 900XP airplanes may not have adequate training, experience and procedures to safely perform the flights,” the agency says in a newly released accident investigation update.
Both Hawker crashes – an 900XP in February 2024 and an 800XP in October 2025 – happened during post-maintenance stall-system flight tests flown by line pilots.
The aircraft and related Hawker types may exhibit unexpected stall behaviour – delayed stick pusher and tendency to roll – due to slight maintenance-introduced wing defects, the NTSB says.
“Both accident flights were flown by [pilots] who, although qualified to fly the airplanes, were unprepared to safely address the adverse stall behaviour they encountered,” says the NTSB.
Textron Aviation, which owns the Hawker type certificates, requires the jets’ stall systems be flight tested following maintenance to wing leading edges, de-icing panels or stall-trigger assemblies. Such tests are needed because the wing “is sensitive to minor wing component installation or condition defects” that can be introduced during maintenance”, says the NTSB.
Some wing components require tolerances within a few hundredths of an inch “to avoid… unacceptable stall characteristics”, a Hawker structural repair manual says.
The NTSB says the jets’ repair manuals provide “only general information about stall test flights”, leaving “open to interpretation” what training pilots should have before flying such flights. The manuals include vagaries and “inaccurate instructions” about stalls and “do not specify procedures or checklists” for stall recovery.
In response, the NTSB is urging Textron to develop stall-test-specific pilot training and qualifications, to better define Hawker stall characteristics and to update aircraft manuals.
The NTSB recommends that the FAA mandate those actions, and it expresses concern “about the adequacy of the FAA’s review” of Hawker manuals.
Neither the FAA nor Textron Aviation provides comment.
Additionally, the NTSB has asked NBAA to spread word about safety risks.
“They are asking for NBAA’s assistance in distributing information about the accident,” to ensure operators, pilots and maintainers understand that some post-maintenance flights “may require pilots who have more experience”, says NBAA senior vice-president of safety Douglas Carr.
“Line pilots trained for normal stalls may not have the experience necessary to be able to conduct this kind of” test, he adds. “There isn’t a lot of guidance from the OEM.”
The Hawker 900XP (registration N900VA) crashed on 7 February 2024 after taking off from Grand Junction Regional airport in Colorado and climbing to nearly 20,000ft. It then decelerated, rolled right and “entered a rapid, vertical descent consistent with a flat spin” before crashing, killing two pilots.
Prior to a stall, the jet’s stall system, when working as designed, activates the stick shaker and then the stick pusher, which should lower the nose and prevent a stall.
But the crashed 900XP’s shaker activated simultaneously to the stall starting and prior to the stick pusher. That unexpected sequence, which left the pilots without indication of an impending stall, likely resulted from wing degradation caused by ice, the NTSB says.
The Hawker 800XP crash on 16 October last year happened after technicians removed the wing leading edges and “ice protection panels”. The maintenance provider had given the 800XP’s pilots a list of test pilots who might complete the required stall test, but the pilots flew the flight themselves.
The jet (XA-JMR) took off from Battle Creek Executive airport in Michigan and, after reaching 15,000ft, “began a rapid descent” and crashed, killing all three people aboard.
The NTSB says it identified three other Hawker stall-test flights “involving uncommanded roll behaviour”.
