Category: Crazy –  Page 5

Cow Takes Down Helicopter

Apologies to those who saw this on Fear of Landing’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, but I know many people only read the blog and I didn’t want anyone to miss it. This is a Robinson R22 Beta which was dragged out of the air by a cow. Well, no, it’s unfair to accuse the cow…

Read more… 23 Sep 16

The Man Who Ate a Cessna

It’s clear by now that I’m obsessively rather interested in planes but not in a weird way. I usually limit myself to considering how they fly, how they look while they are flying, and how they sound when they pass overhead. I’ve never actually considered how they taste. One man did, however. Michel Lotito, a…

Read more… 18 Sep 15

Outrageous Headline of the Day

Today, on Times Warner Cable News: Pilot Caught on Camera Texting During Takeoff Looks bad, right? Except…how the heck could a passenger even see the pilot, let alone get video of the cockpit showing the pilot texting and checking twitter? Well, let’s watch the video. The pilot was a passenger. He was apparently seated halfway…

Read more… 4 Sep 15

Homemade Gyro-Rocket-Copter Thing

When I first saw the reference to “Insane Homebrew Rocket” I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m still not sure what to think. I have to concede that it flies but I’m really not sure what to class the contraption as. A rocket-copter? One YouTube commenter calls it an orbital launch vehicle with an…

Read more… 13 Feb 15

I’m on Television on Monday!

Last autumn, I received an interesting email from a woman researching an aircraft accident. She’d read my post on Northwest Flight 188 (the pilots who flew straight past their destination) and wanted to ask my opinion about the incident and how it compared to the Air India Express last year. I started to mail back…

Read more… 24 Feb 12

How to Drown a Jet

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today and then I saw this unbelievable video posted on Golf Hotel Whiskey entitled Amazing video of how NOT to land a Cessna Citation 2. Although the incident was over five years ago, I’d never seen it before. The Citation, OY-JET, was coming into Atlantic…

Read more… 22 Jul 11

Accident Reports

No Masks, No Oxygen, No Chance

On the 4th of June 2023, a Cessna Citation 560 aircraft crashed in Montebello, Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers. The NTSB released their report on the 14th of…

Hand on Thrust, Brain on Autopilot

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…

Demystifying

How to tell a Russian Su-27 from a British Typhoon

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…

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

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…

History

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…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

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.…

Fun Stuff

Friday Lightness: A Short Respite from Crash Reports

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…

Flights of Fantasy: Aviation April Fools Worth Celebrating

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…