The past week has been dominated by the news that our skies are seemingly teaming with unidentified flying objects, most of which should not be referred to as balloons, even though even the US spokesman accidentally called them balloons during an interview, directly before correcting the journalist that they should be referred to as objects.…
Read more… 17 Feb 23
On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R and 18R/36L. The numbers 18 and 36 signify 180° and 360° and L/R is left or right, as seen when flying towards the active runway.…
Read more… 10 Feb 23
The NTSB report submitted in response to the third draft covers two areas: Airframe/Systems and Operational and Human Factors. Today, I’m going to focus on the airframes and systems. The BEA report will give us more insight into the Operational and Human Factors, as it is based on their analysis of the Cockpit Voice Recording.…
Read more… 3 Feb 23
The final report on Ethiopian flight 302 was released by Ethiopian Accident Investigation Board (EAIB) on the 23rd of December 2022. I’d like to go over the full report in detail but first, let’s take a look at the controversy around the release. Specifically, I want to pay attention to what the report doesn’t say. Ethiopian Airlines…
Read more… 27 Jan 23
On the 15th of January 2023, Yeti Airlines flight 691, a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kathmandu, crashed on approach to Pokhara, killing all 72 souls on board. The aircraft was a fifteen-year-old ATR 72-500, registered 9N-ANC. The ATR 72 is a French twin-engined turboprop popular for short-haul services. The “72” refers to the standard…
Read more… 20 Jan 23
On the 11th of January 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US stopped all departing commercial flights, grounding aircraft all over the US. Hot on the heels of what’s now being referred to as the “Southwest meltdown,” outdated IT systems are once again centre stage. Wednesday’s outage caused the most extensive ground stop…
Read more… 13 Jan 23
Last week I wrote about the Fokker F27 mk 500 Friendship that came off the runway at take-off at Bournemouth Airport. Rudy commented on his experience flying the F27 in…
The flight crew reported for duty at Bournemouth Airport at 3am on Friday the 7th of May 2004. They were flying a thirty-three-year-old Fokker F27 Mark 500, registered in the…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…