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Rotation Gone Wrong: The Critical Error Behind LATAM’s Milan Tail Strike

On the 9th of July 2024, flight LA8073, operated by the Chilean airline LATAM, departed from Milano Malpensa for a passenger flight to São Paulo, Brazil. However, during the take-off run the “back end suddenly dropped after an apparent malfunction”, as Italian newspaper Corriere delle Serra described it. I still can’t watch the video without…

Read more… 27 Sep 24

Icing, Systems, and Human Factors: Preliminary Findings on Voepass flight 2283

On the 9th of August 2024 at 16:22, Voepass flight 2283, a scheduled flight from Cascavel, Paraná, to Guarulhos, São Paulo entered a flat spin and crashed into a residential district, killing everyone on board. CENIPA (CENtro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos), the Brazilian Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Centre, is charged with…

Read more… 20 Sep 24

Vintage Chipmunk Crash at Jandakot

On Wednesday, the ATSB released an urgent advisory asking all owners of the vintage aircraft DHC-1 Chipmunk to check their rivets. This advisory came as a part of the still in-progress investigation of a fatal crash at Jandakot Airport on the 26 of April 2024. The DHC-1 Chipmunk is a two-seater single-engine aircraft introduced in…

Read more… 13 Sep 24

Over-The-Top Gun: When Overconfidence Meets Gravity

I’m excited to share this guest post with you, by our own David Provan! It’s a great piece about his early experience flying the Champ. Over-The-Top Gun by David Provan I was eighteen in 1961. I’d not long done my first ever solo flight on an Aeronca Champion 7EC at Middle Districts Aero Club, Palmerston…

Read more… 7 Sep 24

Motor Glider’s Unexpected Touchdown on the A419

A few days ago, on the 27th of August 2024, a Grob G109B landed on the A419 road in Gloucestershire. The Grob G109B, developed by Grob Aircraft in Germany, is a motorised glider, which sounds like it could be a contradiction in terms. The two-seater low-wing aircraft is capable of both powered and unpowered flight.…

Read more… 30 Aug 24

Nepal’s Aviation Safety Under Scrutiny After Deadly CRJ200 Crash

On the 24th of July 2024, a devastating crash killed seventeen engineers and the first officer seconds after take-off from Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu. Saurya is a tiny airline operating a specialized aircraft in one of the world’s most demanding airports. The Nepalese domestic carrier was founded in 2014 with a Bombardier CRJ200 registered…

Read more… 22 Aug 24

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…