Category: Accident Analysis – Page 13
Dreamliner Pre-flight Maintenance
On Wednesday, the 16th of June, British Airways flight 881 from Moscow arrived at Heathrow airport. The aircraft was registration G-ZBJB, a Boeing 787-8 which had been converted from a passenger aircraft to cargo transport. This was one of four Dreamliner aircraft that British Airways began operating in 2013. The next scheduled flight for the…
Read more… 13 Aug 21
Engine Failure Before Take-Off
Last week, we looked at an accident in a business jet which ran off the runway during a failed take-off run. I tried to give you all of the information that the investigators would have had at the scene, although as Mendel pointed out, because I removed the date, I obscured the time of year,…
Read more… 30 Jul 21
Runway Excursion on Take-Off
This accident happened some time ago but it is new to me. A twin-engine business jet departing from Portland, Oregon, crashed shortly after take-off with four on board. The Aerospatiale SN-601 Corvette was developed and manufactured in the 1970s as a response to a government need for a compact twin turbofan engine. Only 40 Corvettes…
Read more… 23 Jul 21
Aeroperú Flight 603
On Tuesday, the 1st of October 1996, Aeroperú flight 603 departed Miami for a scheduled passenger flight to Santiago, Chile, and landed in Lima, Peru for a planned stop to refuel. The aircraft was a Boeing 757-200 with two flight crew and seven cabin crew. In the cabin were sixty-one passengers, mostly Chilean but also…
Read more… 2 Jul 21
Fatal Seaplane Crash at Oshkosh
The flight crew is often the last safety net when things go wrong, making their failures an easy target for us to point at. After all, if the pilot can be retrained or is no longer flying, then we can consider the problem solved. This allows training deficiencies, operational issues and poor maintenance to be…
Read more… 4 Jun 21
Never Just One Thing: Air Midwest flight 5481 part 2
Last week, we looked at the weight and balance of Air Midwest 5481, which had been underestimated for a number of different reasons. However, although the aircraft was overweight and the centre of gravity was outside of the limits, it didn’t explain the fatal crash. The captain reacted immediately and should have been able to…
Read more… 23 Apr 21
Accident Analysis
Fatal SR22 Stall on Final at Barwick LaFayette
On the 20th of March, 2025, a Cirrus SR22 crashed in LaFayette, Georgia during an instructional flight, killing both the pilot and the flight instructor. It was a good flying…
There Is a Parachutist in Front of You
On the 15th of June 2023, a light aircraft crashed into the runway at Aversi private airfield in Denmark. The aircraft, registered in Germany as D-EPRR, was a Cessna TU206G…
Demystifying
The Pilots, the Probes, and the AF447 Verdict
On the 21st of May 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal convicted Airbus and Air France of involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the crash of Air France flight 447,…
Meowing on Guard (an attempt at an explanation)
Last week a video went viral and it’s been fun to see the mainstream media coverage try to cover two pilots who were heard making animal noises on the radio. …
History
The First Jet to Land on an Aircraft Carrier (Deliberately)
“The Vampire was the first jet to land on a moving aircraft carrier deliberately.” This quote from Airshow Luke, our MC at the Legacy of Liberty airshow, made me almost…
Four Point Two Stars Where You Only Stop If You Have To
I always look up airports when I’m writing about them, partly out of habit and partly because I’m afraid I’ll miss an important detail. When I was writing Any Landing…
Fun Stuff
Aviation Stories You Might Have Missed
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. This week, I’ve put together a compilation of interesting items in the press that you might have missed while enjoying…
Nathan Pyle Strange Worlds
Thank you so much for all the kind words. I don’t quite have the wherewithal to respond to each of you individually but I very much appreciate all of you…
