John DeCarlo, a veteran Connecticut flight instructor who said he has no knowledge of what happened in the East Hartford crash, said that generally in a twin-engine Piper Seneca, the instructor and student sit side by side — the instructor on the right — and each has a yoke and rudder pedals. During a mechanical malfunction or any kind of trouble in the air, the instructor will say, "My airplane," and the student is supposed to relinquish control immediately, DeCarlo said.