Category: Accidents and Incidents – Page 12
In the cabin of Southwest flight 1380
Last week, we looked at Southwest Airlines flight 1380 which suffered an engine failure while climbing to cruise altitude on the 17th of April 2018. A fragment from the engine broke a cabin window, leading to a rapid depressurisation event. The crew immediately descended and diverted to Philadelphia, landing safely seventeen minutes after the engine…
Read more… 25 Sep 20
In the cockpit of Southwest flight 1380
On the 17th of April in 2018, Southwest Airlines flight 1330 experienced an engine failure while climbing to cruise altitude. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-7H4 (registration N772SW) with two turbofan engines manufactured by CFM International. The CFM-7B24 engine has 24 fan blades installed on the fan disk. The flight departed normally from LaGuardia Airport…
Read more… 18 Sep 20
When Not To Go Around
We spend a lot of time talking about bad landings where the pilot(s) should have broken off the approach and gone around. It’s common to continue to try to land at all costs even when the simpler and more sensible option would be to go around and try again. I thought it was worth looking…
Read more… 11 Sep 20
Man vs Machine: the autopilot would not switch off
Two cargo pilots on a routine cargo flight from Jersey to Guernsey, a twenty-minute flight, ended up in quite a muddle including auto-pilot issues, a go around and elevator control problems before making a safe landing back in Jersey, where they started. The incident took place on the approach to Guernsey on the 26th of…
Read more… 14 Aug 20
Going Around: Bulgaria Air Charter flight 8115
It was 4am on the 16th of July 2018 when the Bulgaria Air Charter flight crew arrived at the airport, an hour before the scheduled 05:12 flight 8115 from Catania Airport (LICC) in Italy to Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport (LFBT) in France. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-823 registration LZ-LDM. The MD-80 series is a mid-range…
Read more… 1 Aug 20
Arrow Air flight 1285: icing or explosion?
On the 12th of December 1985, a DC-8 Jetliner operating as Arrow Air flight 1285 crashed on departure from Gander, Canada. This was an international charter flight carrying US troops from Cairo, Egypt to their home base of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with stops to refuel at Cologne in West Germany and at Gander. The flight…
Read more… 24 Jul 20
Accident Reports
The faulty AOA sensor on Ethiopian flight 302
The NTSB report submitted in response to the third draft covers two areas: Airframe/Systems and Operational and Human Factors. Today, I’m going to focus on the airframes and systems. The…
No one noticed it was missing: 1971 Super Cub crash
Lasham Aerodrome in Hampshire, England, was built in 1942 and used as a base for the RAF Fighter Command. After the war, it became the home of the Army Gliding…
Demystifying
Flying Blind: The Importance of NOTAMs in Aviation
On the 11th of January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US stopped all departing commercial flights, grounding aircraft all over the US. Hot on the heels of…
Post-Pandemic Mystery at Heathrow
In June 2021, the British Air Accident Investigative Branch (AAIB) initiated a fascinating investigation after they noticed three similar incidents at London Heathrow over a three-day period. Soon, they realised…
History
The Oldest Footage of Flight
About a week ago, Marléne Aviation posted to Twitter in an attempt to find the oldest video footage of a flight. Marléne Aviation is run by a French aviation history…
Twin Pioneer Down in Libya: Structural Failure in 1956
On the 7th of December 1957, a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer 1, registration G-AOEO, departed an airstrip at Anshan in Libya for a routine flight to Tripoli-Idris Airport. There were…
Fun Stuff
Aviation Videos and Articles for August
I always collect videos and links that I think you might enjoy but apparently, I have been neglecting to actually share them with you! So here’s a “best of the…
Funniest Thing You've Heard On the Radio
I’ve been struggling this week and was just panicking that I would not have a post finished in time for you for today when I discovered that Reddit had saved…
@FearofLanding
CHip on The faulty AOA sensor on Ethiopian flight 302I had not known that this aircraft had two AoA sensors. ISTR discussion of the fact that one sensor was…
MIke S on The faulty AOA sensor on Ethiopian flight 302Whew, that is a very sorry state of affairs. Great writeup, as always. Thank you. 
Phil Pearce on The Mystery of Flying Tiger Line flight 739Hi Jen. I should have included the source of my comments for the sake of credibility and for source credit.…
JENNIFER KIRK on The Mystery of Flying Tiger Line flight 739Good Afternoon Phil thank you for your remarks. I have all of the Sea and Air search data and it…
RogerBW on Controversy Surrounds Final Report on Ethiopian flight 302I think in any sort of post-failure analysis there's a tendency to want to put all the blame on a…