39 years ago on the 4th of September 1971, Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashed on approach to Juneau, Alaska. The Boeing 727, carrying 104 passengers and 7 crew members, flew into the Chilkat Mountain range. There were no survivors. Aircraft Accident Report, Alaska Airlines, Inc. Boeing 727, N2969G The flight had been cleared for a…
Read more… 3 Sep 10
These posts and articles of injured aircraft caught my eye this week and I couldn’t help but think that they’d interest you as well. Although it makes my stomach cramp up to see crumpled pieces of plane, in every instance below there were no fatalities. Once you see the images below, I think you’ll agree…
Read more… 27 Aug 10
I have been collecting my essays, articles and blog-posts into a single volume to see if it would read well as a book. This is the introduction: how I ended up studying for my Private Pilot’s Licence out of a grudge rather than actual interest. It didn’t take long before I was hooked! “You don’t…
Read more… 20 Aug 10
Last week, an Azerbaijan Airlines Airbus 319 collapsed at the end of the runway at Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul. The nose-gear and fuselage appear to be severely damaged. There were no injuries. Azerbaijan Airlines is the state-owned airline of the Republic of Azerbaijan, an independent Turkic state. The flight from their base in Baku,…
Read more… 13 Aug 10
On the 24th of July, Tony Weedn’s engine failed. He was flying a Cessna 172 with three passengers in Florida en route to Orlando. Weedn is a very experienced pilot who dealt with the emergency professionally and brought the plane down safely onto a local golf course. Pilot makes emergency landing on 17th Hole at…
Read more… 6 Aug 10
It seems to be fairly well understood these days that planes have slots – it’s common for the flight crew to announce delays because the flight missed its slot or was given a bad slot. However, I’ve noticed a tendency to blame the airport, passengers mumbling about overcrowding and bad organisation. Slots are not about…
Read more… 30 Jul 10
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…