Latest Posts
Drone Killer
When I’m not obsessing about aviation, I write speculative fiction, including science fiction featuring near-future technology. So you can imagine I was pretty excited when I saw a headline last week that the Oceanside Police Department in California has recently acquired a Drone Killer. I had visions of The Terminator but it turns out that…
Read more… 20 Apr 18
$10,000 Reward for Aircraft Mechanic
This week, the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a man who once worked as a mechanic at SabreTech, the airline maintenance company at the centre of the tragic loss of ValuJet flight 592, which crashed into the Florida Everglades on the 11th of May 1996. It’s not often…
Read more… 13 Apr 18
Land Like a Crow part 2
Last week, I covered the sequence of events that led to a Boeing 767-300 ER wheels-up landing at Warsaw airport. A hydraulic hose connecting the hydraulic system on the right leg of the main landing gear failed as they departed Newark. The flight crew decided to continue to Warsaw but once there, they found that…
Read more… 6 Apr 18
Land Like a Crow Part 1
The entire world seemed to be watching when LOT airlines flight LO16 landed wheels up at Warsaw Airport in 2011. I wrote about it at the time, impressed with the smooth landing: The captain of the flight, Tadeusz Wrona, was the subject of much admiration as a result. His last name means crow in Polish,…
Read more… 30 Mar 18
The Low Rotor Horn
Reddit user CrimsonAv8or posted this story on the flying subreddit and I immediately got in touch to ask if I could share the post with you! It’s a very good and honest piece which definitely comes under the ‘learned about flying from that’ category. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. For…
Read more… 23 Mar 18
Aircraft Parked at the Pub
This is one of my favourite aviation stories of all time, honestly, just for the headline potential. Man in Australia Arrested for Driving Wingless Plane to Bar Plane Taxied Down Main Street to Newman Pub Fine for man who taxied plane down Newman street and stopped at pub The original incident, which took place in…
Read more… 16 Mar 18
Accident Reports
Operational Failures: Execuflight 1526 Part Two
On the 10th of November 2015, a BAe 125 operated by Execuflight crashed into an apartment building while on approach to Akron Fulton International Airport. The captain, the first officer…
Trouble in the Cockpit: Execuflight 1526 Part One
On the 10th of November 2015, Execuflight flight 1526 was a British Aerospace HS 127-700A chartered for a flight across Ohio from Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport in Dayton to Akron Fulton…
Demystifying
Crash in the Desert (Controlled Impact Demonstration)
This post started, as so many of them do, with a seemingly unbelieveable photograph with no attribution information. It didn’t take long to find a Reddit thread discussing the photograph…
The 1% rule and air disaster avoidance
I asked my friend, Robert Dawson, to help me understand the numbers behind risk assessment and the 1% rule. Robert writes fantastic science fiction and poetry, however I contacted him…
History
Goddamned Cat
Sometimes the best stories are the ones that aren’t so famous, where the race was not won and the record was not broken. This is such a story. It’s the…
The Story of the Avro Lancaster LM650 KM-T
I became interested in this story last year, when a reader named Niall left a comment about this rather odd item for sale on Ebay: What was the story of…
Fun Stuff
My Favourite Posts from 2006 to 2017
This week, while I recover from my Holiday Food Coma, I want to try something a little different. I’ve collected my favourite posts from the past – ones that will…
Parachute deployed in flat spin at 1,000 feet
This video was posted to a number of aviation forums last week and it’s easy to see why. I literally watched it three times in a row on the spot…
@FearofLanding
Rudy Jakma on Drone KillerMaybe I'd prefer to concentrate on de-constructive. Drones, as I think I predicted, are becoming a pest. They have the…
Tammy on $10,000 Reward for Aircraft MechanicAnd the oxygen generators on the ValuJet flight were wrapped in bubble wrap. As I recall, the NTSB's tests revealed…
Dave Harmon on $10,000 Reward for Aircraft MechanicWhen operated at normal room temperature, the outside of the oxygen generators can reach up to 547°F (286°C). Compare to…
Ross on $10,000 Reward for Aircraft MechanicWhen I was flying DC-9s and MD80s the pilots had an oxygen bottle mounted behind the copilot that fed the…
CHip on $10,000 Reward for Aircraft MechanicI remember this case very well. I was scheduled to fly on VJ a couple of weeks later; the flight…