As we run up to the holiday season, here’s a couple of amazing aviation videos to brighten up your day! If you are reading this on the mailing list, I’m afraid you’ll have to click through to see these as I can’t embed them into the mail for you! Anyway, these are all stunning new…
Read more… 20 Dec 13
This week, a selection of aviation news and videos that caught my eye. Seems like everyone is talking about this unbelievable video of skydivers escaping from a crashing plane, as broadcast by NBC. The headcam footage is amazing (and chilling). Planes Collide in Mid Air – Terrifying Skydiving Accident caught on camera – Exclusive Full…
Read more… 8 Nov 13
So, I’m finally back online but boy, do I have a lot of catching up to do. Here’s a number of links, photos and videos that made me smile as I started reading through the aviation news that I had missed. Young pilots praised for ‘textbook’ crash landing at Victoria Point – ABC News (Australian…
Read more… 6 Sep 13
A selection of links and videos that I was perusing when I should have been writing you an interesting post for the week… Apparently it’s a shame about the plot, however this is some of the most stunning footage I’ve seen in a long time. Eat your heart out, Top Gun. Aw, so cute! Chicks…
Read more… 5 Jul 13
Last week, I was struck by the difference in headlines: The BBC reported Heathrow Airport runways closed for emergency landing while a rather less professional journal chose the headline Plane on Fire Flying Over Central London. Anyway, the AAIB have released a special bulletin regarding the Airbus A319 that had an engine fire departing from…
Read more… 7 Jun 13
I’ve been very busy on the next edition of Why Planes Crash, so I don’t have an exciting new article for you. But this collection of maintenance complaints and solutions never gets old. I know, these are just too good to be true! I did try to find the original source but I failed miserably.…
Read more… 31 May 13
Why KLM Cut the Steering Cables on Two Perfectly Functional Boeing 737s
Last month, we looked at the night of 28th of November 2004 at Barcelona Airport. KLM 1673 ran off the runway at high speed, stopping just short of a canal.…
KLM 1673 Veers Off the Runway with Full Right Rudder
On the 28th of November 2004, a Boeing B737 ran off the runway at Barcelona Airport. The weather had been good at Barcelona that evening. The flight crew agreed to land…
How Important is Having a Sterile Cockpit?
This question was posted to r/flying by a private pilot who wanted to know: do airline pilots ever engage in small talk about irrelevant things during taxiing, run-up, takeoff, and…
Someone has to write the TAF
It turns out that there a person sitting there deciding what the weather is going to do. Which seems obvious, except that I had somehow never asked msyelf who “someone”…
The CIA's Shark Screen
Today we have a guest post from the CIA! In their archives, researching something completely different, I found the answer to a question I never thought to ask. I immediately…
The First Jet to Land on an Aircraft Carrier (Deliberately)
“The Vampire was the first jet to land on a moving aircraft carrier deliberately.” This quote from Airshow Luke, our MC at the Legacy of Liberty airshow, made me almost…
Petrified, Petrified, Petrified
There’s been some interesting reporting in the UK media about a “near disaster” over Canary Wharf involving the captain having to intervene (the horror!) after air data systems failed on…
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…