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
6. We’ve lost the cabin! Southwest Flight 812 was climbing through 34,000 feet when there was the sound of an explosion and the oxygen masks dropped. The pilots, recognising a rapid decompression, immediately began a descent. A 5-foot by 1-foot (152cm by 30cm) tear in the fuselage skin opened the aircraft right up and the…
Read more… 10 May 13
This week the chilling dashcam video of a Boeing 747 crashing at Bagram airfield has spread across the Internet. I’m not sure there’s much to say about it at this stage but I can’t get it out of my head. Here’s the details as I understand them. Crash: National Air Cargo B744 at Bagram on…
Read more… 3 May 13
This week, a 25-year old pilot was fined £3,400 for airspace infringement. The case was somewhat dramatically reported on in the Herts and Essex observer: Pilot fined after causing havoc over Stansted airport | Uttlesford village headlines The Court Reporter has written up the case, including the claim that, “At one point, Marriott’s poorly-equipped Piper…
Read more… 26 Apr 13
Any Landing You Can Float Away From: Successful Ditching in the Arctic
On the 29th of July 2024, a light aircraft encountered engine trouble off the coast of Greenland and was forced to ditch in the North Atlantic. The aircraft was a…
Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found
In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…
Another quick round of questions and answers
It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…
Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash
The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…
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…