Aviation accident ANC23FA008

Guardian Flight’s inadequate pilot training and performance tracking, which failed to identify and correct the pilot’s consistent lack of skill, and which resulted in the pilot’s inability to maintain his position inflight using secondary instruments to navigate when the airplane’s electronic attitude direction indicator failed, leading to his spatial disorientation and subsequent loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a visible horizon during dark night overwater conditions and the pilot’s failure to declare an emergency with air traffic control.