Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (Tallinna lennujaam) is the largest airport in Estonia. It serves as a hub for Estonian airline Nordica as well as the secondary hub for AirBaltic and LOT Polish Airlines. Over the past year, Tallinn has worked to expand its single asphalt-concrete runway to 3,070 metres but at the time, in 2010,…
Read more… 3 Feb 17
On the 3rd of July in 2014, a Boeing 777-300ER operated by Singapore Airlines was involved in a “loss of separation” incident after departing Houston. The NTSB chose not to investigate the occurrence formally, which was regarded as a pilot deviation from an ATC clearance. However, they reviewed the circumstances of the incident and passed…
Read more… 20 Jan 17
On the 25th of February 2016, a Boeing 737-800 and a Falcon 2000 were involved in an airprox incident over Germany. The Boeing 737 was passenger flight ENT-511 from Gdansk, Poland to Jerez, Spain. The flight was operated by Enter Air, a low-cost Polish charter airline operating flights to popular holiday destinations all over Europe.…
Read more… 11 Nov 16
This story of a light aircraft crash in Northern Spain was one that I didn’t quite have space for in Why Planes Crash Case Files: 2003. The date was the 27th of June in 2003. The aircraft was a Socata TB-20 Trinidad. The pilot was German, 58 years old and an experienced private pilot whose…
Read more… 4 Nov 16
Last week, there was a frightening near-miss on the runway at Shanghai airport. Although there is no official report yet, the details are available on the Aviation Herald incident page. It was the 11th of October and the weather was clear with good visibility. China Eastern flight MU-5106, an Airbus A330-300, was a scheduled domestic…
Read more… 21 Oct 16
On the 16th of March, 1962, a Lockheed Super Constellation airliner disappeared over the Pacific. The Flying Tiger Line was the first scheduled cargo airline in the US. It was named after the Flying Tigers fighter unit, a World War II group of pilots from the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps whose shark-faced fighter…
Read more… 30 Sep 16
Leeds Bradford Airport in England, perched on a windy hilltop, is known for its challenging conditions. But even by Leeds standards, the conditions on the 20th of October 2023 were…
Last year, I wrote about a Cessna 210 which suffered an engine failure while downwind at Bankstown Airport in New South Wales, Australia. I’ll quickly recap the controller and pilot…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…