Category: Accident Reports

Have You Ever Flown a Barrel Roll at Night?

On the 14th of February in 2010, a private jet disappeared from radar in German airspace eleven minutes after taking off for a routine ferry flight from the Czech Republic to Sweden. I wrote a short piece about this accident a few years back but the accident report hadn’t been published yet. Now that I’ve…

Read more… 15 Sep 17

Experimental Jet Crashes in Mojave

On the 13th of May in 2016, a Seguin Quickie, registration N68TQ, crashed in Mojave, CA. If you don’t recognise the aircraft type, that’s because there’s only one in existence. Or was. The Seguin Quickie was an experimental amateur-built kit plane: a single-seater composite aircraft. It was designed and constructed for air racing by commercial…

Read more… 8 Sep 17

When Both Your Mind and Your Instruments Are Lying

In the early hours on the 8th of January in 2016, a cargo plane was reported missing in northern Sweden. The West Air Bombadier CRJ-200 made a single MAYDAY call at 01:30 before disappearing from radar. A Norwegian Air Force F-16 discovered the crash site on a mountain plateau in Lapland an hour later, northwest…

Read more… 25 Aug 17

Fatal Go Around at Tatarstan Part Two

Last week, we left off as the flight crew of flight TAK363, a Boeing 737-500 inbound to Kazan Airport in Tatarstan, broke off their approach for a go around. The first officer had finally made visual contact with the runway but much too late. Captain: “Where do you see it? I don’t. Where is it?”…

Read more… 4 Aug 17

Fatal Go Around at Tatarstan

On the 17th of November in 2013, the Boeing 737-500 registered in Bermuda as VQ-BBN departed Kazan Airport for scheduled flight TAK 363 to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport (the largest airport in Russia and, as of 2014, the largest airport in Eastern Europe). The aircraft departed normally at 11:22 (UTC) and landed at Domodedovo at 12:43.…

Read more… 28 Jul 17

A Serious Runway Incursion: Embraer 195 vs Airbus 320

There was a serious runway incursion at Brussels Airport on the 5th of October 2016, when an Embraer ERJ-195LR crossed in front of the path of a landing Airbus A320-214. The Belgian Air Accident Investigation Unit released their report last week and it’s a good study on how minor inconveniences can pile up into creating…

Read more… 21 Jul 17

Accident Reports

He's a Terror in a Twin

Sometimes it’s obvious how an accident report is going to end from the very first sentence. NTSB Identification: CEN15FA400 “The airplane owner, who was a noninstrument-rated private pilot and did…

The Database Error And The Turkish Airlines Airbus

On the 4th of March 2015 a Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-303 left the runway when landing at Kathmandu. The headlines called it a database error. When I read the accident…

Demystifying

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…

Airplane Pens

This is a bit of a short post today to make up for all the heavy posts recently. Me, I’m enjoying the long weekend and a bit of sunshine… This…

History

Amelia Earhart Captured By Japanese

On Wednesday, the news hit the headlines that a newly discovered photograph could show Amelia Earhart in Japanese custody. The photograph, apparently taken by a US spy in the 1930s,…

Sutlej Missing Over Indian Ocean

On 25 March 1986, three Antonov An-32 transport planes departed Muscat, the capital of Oman, in a staggered formation for the Indian Air Force base at Jagmagar. Initially, the Indian…

Fun Stuff

Maybe an Origin Story

It was a lazy evening in 1980 and I was bored at my dad’s house, when I put on his television and flicked through the 150 channels he had, looking…

This Week's Most Amazing Stories

This has been an amazing week for aviation news with unbelievable stories and videos seemingly coming from all directions. Anna and I have been posting every day to the Fear…