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The Spy in the Sky: The Military’s Interest in Unidentified Floating Objects
The past week has been dominated by the news that our skies are seemingly teaming with unidentified flying objects, most of which should not be referred to as balloons, even though even the US spokesman accidentally called them balloons during an interview, directly before correcting the journalist that they should be referred to as objects.…
Read more… 17 Feb 23
Sharing a Runway: Fed Ex vs Southwest at Austin
On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R and 18R/36L. The numbers 18 and 36 signify 180° and 360° and L/R is left or right, as seen when flying towards the active runway.…
Read more… 10 Feb 23
The faulty AOA sensor on Ethiopian flight 302
The NTSB report submitted in response to the third draft covers two areas: Airframe/Systems and Operational and Human Factors. Today, I’m going to focus on the airframes and systems. The BEA report will give us more insight into the Operational and Human Factors, as it is based on their analysis of the Cockpit Voice Recording.…
Read more… 3 Feb 23
Controversy Surrounds Final Report on Ethiopian flight 302
The final report on Ethiopian flight 302 was released by Ethiopian Accident Investigation Board (EAIB) on the 23rd of December 2022. I’d like to go over the full report in detail but first, let’s take a look at the controversy around the release. Specifically, I want to pay attention to what the report doesn’t say. Ethiopian Airlines…
Read more… 27 Jan 23
Yeti Airlines flight 691 crash in Nepal
On the 15th of January 2023, Yeti Airlines flight 691, a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kathmandu, crashed on approach to Pokhara, killing all 72 souls on board. The aircraft was a fifteen-year-old ATR 72-500, registered 9N-ANC. The ATR 72 is a French twin-engined turboprop popular for short-haul services. The “72” refers to the standard…
Read more… 20 Jan 23
Flying Blind: The Importance of NOTAMs in Aviation
On the 11th of January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US stopped all departing commercial flights, grounding aircraft all over the US. Hot on the heels of what’s now being referred to as the “Southwest meltdown,” outdated IT systems are once again centre stage. Wednesday’s outage caused the most extensive ground stop…
Read more… 13 Jan 23
Accident Reports
Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air Collision
On the 12th of November 2022, a Bell P-63F Kingcobra fighter flew into a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during the Wings Over Dallas airshow. All six crew members in…
"Totally a visibility issue."
On Sunday, the 27th of November 2022, a single-engine aircraft made national US news when it crashed through power lines in Gaithersburg, Maryland, coming to rest on a lattice tower.…
Demystifying
How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon
There are a number of reasons why you might need to quickly point out the differences between a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. You might…
Extreme Turbulence in Singapore Airlines flight 321
A few days ago (21st of May 2024), Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered heavy turbulence on a passenger flight from London-Heathrow to Singapore. There were 229 on board, including eighteen…
History
Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?
This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…
The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought
This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…
Fun Stuff
Terminally Early: The Berlin Viewing Platform
Mistakes were made. All of them were mine. Before I left for Dresden, I planned out my full itinerary. Berlin is a much busier airport than Tallinn, so I needed…
A Few Good Stories
I’m in Dresden at the moment and I’m afraid I haven’t had a free moment to write you a new article. Luckily, lots of other people are on the internet…
Minz on Navigating Instrument Failure at 10,000 FeetThe number of time people get away with these things, just one hole in the Swiss cheese doesn’t line up……
Mike Scirocco on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionThanks for another interesting writeup. A sad story. I'm VERY happy to hear the FAA and ICA were informed with…
Pradeep Arora on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionTotally avoidable. Two different aircraft, operating in close quarters needs a plan. The AirBoss needs to be called out 
CHip on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionExcellent analysis. I hadn't realized that there were "air bosses" who would wing a show instead of giving cues for…
Mendel on Mid-air collision at Wings Over DallasThe final report is out. NTSB also put a summary on youtube, and it includes a flight track animation along…