I couldn’t pick just one incident.

American Airlines 737 plane found with apparent bullet hole after flight from Miami to Colombia

Ground crew at Jose María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia discovered puncture damage consistent with a bullet strike in the right aileron of an American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered in the US as N342SX. The aircraft had operated flight AA923 from Miami, Florida to Medellín on the evening of the 22nd of February. The apparent bullet hole extended through the aileron with exit damage on the opposite side. Neither crew nor passengers had noticed anything unusual during the flight.

The aircraft was patched in Medellín and flew back to Miami on Monday morning as scheduled for flight AA924. From there, the aircraft was ferried to Dallas Fort Worth for full repairs. Colombian officials believe that the 737 was struck while landing in Medellín and are investigating.

Somalian Fokker 50 badly damaged after overrunning onto Mogadishu beach

On the 10th of February 2026, a Fokker 50 registered in Somalia as 6O-YAS, departed Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport on the Somali coast, bound for Gaalkacyo. There were five crew and fifty passengers on board.

A StarSky Fokker 50 crashes shortly after departure from Mogadishu Aden Adde International Airport, Somalia.

According to local reports all passengers have safely evacuated. pic.twitter.com/pYULsbv2Rm

— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) February 10, 2026

Fifteen minutes into the flight, the crew detected a technical problem and turned back for an emergency landing. The Fokker 50 touched down on runway 23 but the flight crew could not stop the aircraft. The airport, located directly on the coast, offers no real overrun margin. The Fokker 50 went off the end of the runway and came to rest on a sandy beach at the edge of the Indian Ocean.

Photos taken of the evacuation show a battered turboprop with a broken right wing and waves lapping at the fuselage resting in the sand. All passengers and crew were evacuated without serious injury. A spokesperson from the airline commended the pilot’s calm decision making. No information has been released as to the nature of the technical fault. The Somali Civil Aviation Authority has opened an investigation.

Another United Airlines Flight Forced To Divert After Laptop Falls Through Crack Into The Cargo Hold

United Airlines flight UA748 departed Dulles International Airport in Washington for Geneva. The Boeing 767 was cruising at FL330 (~33,000 feet) off of the coast of Maine when the crew asked to divert as a business-class passenger’s laptop had slipped through a gap between their seat and the sidewall, dropping into an inaccessible void above the cargo hold.

We have a minor situation here with a passenger who has somehow dropped a laptop down the sidewall into the cargo pit of the airplane. We don’t know the status of it, we can’t access it, we can’t see it.

The issue is a lithium battery fire risk: if the laptop is damaged in the fall and undergoes thermal runaway in an inaccessible space, the crew has no way to fight it.

This is the third time that a United 767 diverted because a laptop has fallen through the cabin floor. The Autopian writes in more detail on the gap in the Polaris business class seats that is causing the problem (second half of the article). This third event suggests a design and/or certification issue that needs to be resolved.

Two KLM aircraft collide on the ground, no injuries reported

Two KLM Boeing 737-800s had an expensive encounter at Amsterdam Schiphol on the morning of the 21st of February. PH-BCL was being pushed back from gate D54 for flight KL1953 to Athens when it struck PH-BGC, which had just arrived from Birmingham, England as KL1040. It is unclear to me whether it was taxiing towards gate D29 or stationary at the point of impact. AeroTime and NL Times say the aircraft was stationary. Aviation.Direct says it was taxiing to D29. PPRuNe’s ADS-B analysis suggests it had stopped short of its parking stand and remained there for about two minutes before the collision. Aviation Safety Network’s wikibase entry says it “was taxiing to its parking position.”

Both jets were taken out of service. The Athens flight departed about four hours later on a replacement aircraft. NL Times reports that the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) and Dutch air traffic control (LVNL) have both opened investigations.

I have to say, having two of your own aircraft collide with each other at your home hub is never a great look.

How China is masking drone flights in potential Taiwan rehearsal

Reuters reports that a large Chinese military drone is transmitting false transponder signals while overflying the South China Sea. The call sign, YILO4200, belongs to a long-endurance Chinese military drone, but flight tracking data showed that it was transmitting registration numbers belonging to other aircraft for at least 23 flights since August 2025.

The drone appeared on Flightradar24 variously as a sanctioned Belarusian Rada Airlines Il-62 cargo plane, a British RAF Typhoon fighter jet, a North Korean passenger aircraft, and an anonymous Gulfstream business jet. In one instance, it switched identities between four different aircraft within 20 minutes; in another, the real Belarusian Il-62 was airborne at the same time as the drone mimicking it.

And while the masking is unlikely to fully deceive air traffic controllers or military-grade radars, it could sow time-wasting confusion in a conflict, conceal sensitive surveillance activity or be used for propaganda or misinformation, the envoys and intelligence analysts said.

Coast Guard Pilot Flying Kristi Noem Fired Over a Missing Blanket

AVweb shares reports from the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Mail that a U.S. Coast Guard pilot transporting Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, was reportedly fired over forgetting a blanket.

The pilot was told to take a commercial flight home, after Noem’s personal blanket was not transferred to a replacement aircraft during a maintenance-related plane change. The dismissal was reversed when it turned out no other pilot was immediately available for the return leg.

El Paso flights canceled after FAA imposes, then lifts, sudden airspace shutdown over drone issue

On the 10th of February, the FAA abruptly issued a temporary flight restriction shutting down all airspace below 18,000 feet within 10 miles of El Paso International Airport, initially for 10 days, a scale of closure not seen since September 11, 2001. The temporary flight restriction warned that violating aircraft could be “intercepted, detained and questioned” and that deadly force could be used against any aircraft posing an imminent security threat.

The closure was because of a high-energy anti-drone laser deployed near Fort Bliss. The FAA had previously requested a safety meeting with the Pentagon before any further use of the laser system, scheduled for 20 February. However, Customs and Border Protection used the anti-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA, shooting down objects that turned out to be party balloons. Meanwhile, medical evacuation helicopters had to divert 45 miles away. The closure was lifted after about eight hours, with conflicting explanations from the White House and the Pentagon. The FAA left little doubt that they had closed the airspace precisely because the Pentagon had not provided the safety data it had been asking for.

Military Times further reports that on the 27th February, the laser system was deployed again, prompting a second airspace closure.

This time it was used by the military who apparently shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone. Members of Congress described the situation as “incompetence” and called for independent investigations.

I can’t wait to see what March brings.