On the 21st of January 2019, a Piper Malibu crashed into the English Channel near the island of Guernsey, killing both the pilot and the passenger on impact. Technically, this accident should have been investigated by the NTSB as the aircraft was registered in the US as N264DB. However, in this case, the NTSB delegated…
Read more… 26 Nov 21
On the 11th of October 2020, a Cessna FRA150L Aerobat departing from a grass field in the Lake District crashed shortly after take-off. The pilot was killed in the impact. Yesterday, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) released the results of their investigation. This accident is tragic, in that it is a story of…
Read more… 19 Nov 21
On the 24th of August 2016, a test flight of the HAV Airlander 10 registered G-PHRG ended badly. Well, the test flight itself was successful. With aircraft, take-off and landing are the critical phases of flight, while most airship issues seem to occur after the flight is finished, when the airship is parking. Or rather,…
Read more… 29 Oct 21
Last week, we started the sequence of events that happened inside the cockpit of Lion Air flight 610. The primary resource for this sequence of events is the final report released by the Komite Nasional Keselamatan Transportasi (KNKT). We left off with the cockpit still blaring with alarms and alerts. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System…
Read more… 1 Oct 21
On the 29th of October 2018, Lion Air flight 610, a Boeing 737-8 (MAX) crashed at Tanjung Karawang, West Java after departing from Jakarta. This crash was the first public sign that there was something wrong with the Boeing 737-MAX; the initial domino in a cascading sequence of events that uncovered an unbelievable quagmire of…
Read more… 24 Sep 21
On Tuesday the 13th of August 2019, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, registration N84287 crashed into a sand bar on the Escambia River near Jay, Florida, near the Alabama border. The pilot held both commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates with over 1,000 hours flight time, 798 hours in the aircraft make and model. The aircraft…
Read more… 10 Sep 21
On the 28th of June 2024 a Boeing 777-236, registered in the UK as G-VIIT, rejected a take-off after reaching V1 during the take-off roll on 26L at London Gatwick…
On the 3rd of March 2023, a passenger in a private jet died after severe injuries in the cabin, which were originally reported as caused by severe turbulence. This was…
This is not an article that I ever thought I would feel compelled to write! However, given the confusion over a photograph chosen in a regional English paper, apparently it’s…
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…
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.…
It seems a good time for something a bit more lighthearted. After weeks of analyzing serious incidents and technical failures, I thought I could a moment to appreciate aviation humuor…
I’m going to admit that I’m not a great fan of April Fools’ pranks, especially not attempts to trick people into believing something and then pulling the rug out from…