Continuing its focus on the general aviation accident record, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board released a safety alert highlighting issues facing pilots at major fly-in events. The alert, Arriving at a Major Fly-In event: Keep Your Focus on Safety (SA-053), was issued as Sun 'n' Fun was preparing to kick off in Lakeland, Fla., and in advance of this year’s Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis.

“Arrivals at major fly-in events...pose unique challenges for pilots (and air traffic controllers), including extremely high-density traffic, special flight and communication procedures, a rapidly changing environment, and changes to air traffic control separation standards,” the safety alert says, adding that fly-in ATC procedures can involve reduced runway separation, minimized radio communication and shared control of arrival and departure aircraft on the same runway.

“Pilots may focus so much on complying with ATC instructions in this challenging environment that they lose control of the aircraft, which can lead to a stall,” NTSB said, adding, “accidents have occurred when pilots were too slow and stalled, used an excessive bank angle (resulting in an accelerated stall) or overshot the runway.”

The Safety Board noted several preventable loss-of-control accidents that occurred on arrival and pointed to three crashes over the past decade that took place at either Sun 'n' Fun or Oshkosh.

The NTSB provides a series of common sense guidance for pilots, such as studying the event Notam, being mentally prepared for a challenging and dynamic environment, knowing the limitations of aircraft and keeping radio traffic to a minimum.

“Events like these are a great way to celebrate the joy of aviation,” said John DeLisi, director of NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, “[and] a little extra planning will help ensure a safe arrival.”

The alert is the latest in a series that the NTSB has issued on general aviation safety. General aviation safety has remained on the agency’s "Most Wanted" list for the past several years, with the recent focus on loss-of-control accidents.