Last week, the NTSB held the Asiana Flight 214 Investigative Hearing. On the 6th of July 2013, Asiana Flight 214, a scheduled passenger flight from Incheon, South Korea to San Francisco, CA, crashed on final approach after striking the seawall a few hundred feet short of the runway. The investigation is continuing but a key…
Read more… 13 Dec 13
Last week, international news headlines were filled with the headlines of a Boeing 747 that landed at the wrong airport. Meanwhile, pilots all over the world cringed at the thought of making that kind of mistake and ending up in the media spotlight. But of course the question on most people’s lips has been, how…
Read more… 22 Nov 13
A few days ago, the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates has released its final report on the Boeing 747 which crashed on the 3rd of September in 2010 after an uncontained cargo fire. Uncontained Cargo Fire Leading to Loss of Control Inflight and Uncontrolled Descent Into Terrain The 326-page accident report…
Read more… 26 Jul 13
This video of a Rejected Take Off (RTO) by Simon Lowe is making the rounds. It shows an Airbus A330 at Manchester Airport aborting take-off at high speed directly after a bang as the right engine fails. The Thomas Cook flight was en route to the Dominican Republic. It is a lovely textbook case of…
Read more… 28 Jun 13
It was the 13th of November, 2011. Two pilots were flying a rented Cirrus SR22, on their way home from the Stuart Air Show at Witham Field in Martin County, Florida. The pilot in the left seat was a 23 year-old private pilot. In the right seat, was a 34-year old commercial pilot whose family…
Read more… 21 Jun 13
The Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee have released a preliminary report regarding the PT Lion Mentari Airlines accident at Ngurah Rai International Airport on Bali on the 13th of April this year. Here’s a summary what we know so far. All timestamps are in UTC: Java’s timezone is UTC+7 and Bali’s timezone is UTC+8. 05:45…
Read more… 17 May 13
Ferry Tank Failure: Successful SR22 Ditching in the Pacific
In 2015, I shared a video of an SR22 whose pilot successfully deployed his Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) off of the coast of Maui, Hawai’i. I wrote at the time…
The Man in the Right Seat at Prestwick
On the 23rd of April 2024, a Piper Archer II crashed in South Ayrshire, Scotland, after losing power. There were two on board. Both suffered serious injuries and the light…
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. …
Trump Threatens to Ground Canadian Aircraft Over Gulfstream Certification
The US President, Donald Trump, posted the following to Truth Social last night. Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500,…
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…
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…
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…