Passengers manipulating controls

Not GA, but I recall an Air Force accident report where shards of the stick
grip in the palm of the back seat passenger's hand indicated that he was on
the stick at impact. I think it was an academy cadet in a T-33 and the
instructor in the front had a heart attack.


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If the insurance company can't link passengers touching of controls, in
general, to accidents why forbid it? I wonder how many GA accidents have
been linked to a non-pilot passenger handling the controls. There are
probably some but I'd guess that they would involve panicked passengers. If
its such a big deal why not require that there be no controls accessible to
the passenger? I could understand no touching during critical phases of
flight (approach, landing take-off, below x altitude, etc) but to completely
forbid it is overkill.

I just fail to see the logic of "Well, before you stall/spun on final you
let the passenger make a few turns an hour prior. Therefore, your policy is
cancelled" or worse, deny coverage on that particular accident.

I know 'don't ask, don't tell' is the simplest way around it but I'd hate to
say to someone "I'll let you try but you can't tell anybody when we get back
on the ground".