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Human Factors: Crossair Flight 850

Human Factors: an airworthy aircraft involved in an accident caused by decisions taken by people. The pilot in command, in the end, is held responsible, whether the errors in question are latent or active. The pilot in command carries the final decision over the safety of the flight and the landing. Statistically, we distinguish between…

Read more… 7 Jan 11

Best of 2010

Happy New Year! I’ve compiled a list of the most popular posts of 2010 (some of which are from 2009!) for your reading pleasure. It’s a fun collection of photography, essays, news and even a link round-up on engine failure. I hope you enjoy the articles and I look forward to sharing lots of new…

Read more… 31 Dec 10

Merry Christmas!

Read more… 24 Dec 10

Sitting and Waiting

After my first solo, that wondrous moment of suddenly feeling in control of the plane and realising that I could fly, dammit! I kicked into high gear. There was only one week of the course left. Desperate to catch up, I got up earlier and earlier, leaving my seven-year-old son fast asleep for the childminder…

Read more… 17 Dec 10

Update on Qantas QF32 Airbus 380 Incident

I wrote previously about the Qantas flight QF32 Airbus A380 which made an emergency landing in Singapore last month. Investigation: AO-2010-089 – Inflight engine failure – Qantas, Airbus A380, VH-OQA, overhead Batam Island, Indonesia, 4 November 2010 Following a normal takeoff, the crew retracted the landing gear and flaps. The crew reported that, while maintaining…

Read more… 10 Dec 10

UK Snow Day on Webcams

Our flight to Gatwick was cancelled so I spent the day peering at webcams all over the UK to see the status of the airfields. It’s great to see how many UK airfields have web cams showing the apron and the runway and even more so when you get to look at snow whilst sitting…

Read more… 3 Dec 10

Accident Analysis

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…

Demystifying

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”…

History

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…

Fun Stuff

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…