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A Hawker 900XP descends to land.
The NTSB has issued several urgent safety recommendations calling on Textron Aviation and the FAA to establish pilot training and qualification criteria for post-maintenance stall test flights the manufacturer requires for Hawker business jets.
The safety board on Jan. 2 issued five urgent recommendations to Textron Aviation and one each to the FAA and trade association NBAA resulting from its investigation of two fatal accidents that occurred in 2024 and 2025 during manufacturer-required post-maintenance stall test flight in Hawker 800XP and Hawker 900XP twinjets.
“We are concerned that, due to deficiencies we identified in the information available to airplane owners, operators, and pilots related to the training and procedures needed to safely perform manufacturer-required post-maintenance stall test flights in certain Hawker airplane models, other flight crews tasked to perform such flights may be similarly unprepared,” the NTSB said.
Two pilots and a company maintenance representative were killed Oct. 16, 2025, during a stall test flight following maintenance of a Hawker 800XP near Bath Township, Michigan. On Feb. 7, 2024, the pilot and co-pilot were killed during a stall test flight of a Hawker 900XP near Westwater, Utah.
“Both accident flights were flown by the respective operator’s flight crews who, although qualified to fly the airplanes, were unprepared to safely address the adverse stall behavior they encountered during the stall test flights,” the NTSB said.
The safety board recommends that Textron Aviation define manufacturer-authorized pilot training and experience qualification criteria for pilots who perform post-maintenance stall test flights in Hawker 700, 800, 800XP, 850XP, and 900XP twinjets “ensure that they are prepared with the competencies needed to safely respond to an encounter with unacceptable stall characteristics.”
Other NTSB recommendations call for Textron Aviation to:
- Develop a stall test plan that describes unacceptable stall characteristics, recovery procedures, and safety considerations needed to prepare manufacturer-authorized flight crew to safely perform post-maintenance stall test flights.
- Review all other Hawker models listed on type certificate A3EU, and, for each model that is subject to post-maintenance stall test flights, define stall test flight pilot training and experience qualification criteria and develop a stall test plan.
- Review the Pilot’s Operating Manual and Airplane Flight Manual for the jets on type certificate A3EU and revise them, as necessary, to provide a description of the adverse effects of certain wing surface anomalies, such as visually imperceptible defects or light ice accretion, on the aircraft’s stall behavior.
- Inform owners and operators of the models on type certificate A3EU that are subject to post-maintenance stall flight tests of the circumstances of the two accidents to increase their awareness of the possibility of unacceptable stall behavior, such as an uncommanded roll through 360 deg. and entry into a spin, and that the flight crew training and experience needed to ensure the safety of these flights exceeds that which is typically provided to operational line pilots.
The NTSB calls on the FAA to require the manufacturer to complete the actions specified in its safety recommendations to ensure the information is accurate and correctly incorporated into the appropriate FAA-approved manual or document for each aircraft. It calls on NBAA to inform its membership of the recent Hawker accidents to increase awareness that “unacceptable stall behavior may occur” during post-maintenance stall test flights.
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