Latest Posts   –  Page 3

Pneumatic Pressure Required

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 UK as G-CEXG, to the island of Jersey and back. The Fokker F27 Friendship was designed as a successor to the DC-3, which had been…

Read more… 11 Apr 25

Flights of Fantasy: Aviation April Fools Worth Celebrating

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 under them. But when an April Fools Day joke is poking fun at the world in a way that we all get to be in…

Read more… 4 Apr 25

How to tell a Russian Su-27 from a British Typhoon

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 a conversation that we need to have. Let’s start by working out what went wrong. Estonia, 2019 On the 25th of June in 2019, the…

Read more… 28 Mar 25

Intolerable Risk: Dangerous Design behind the Washington DC Mid-Air Collision

On the 11th of March, the NTSB released an aviation investigation preliminary report on the mid-air collision between PSA Airlines flight 5342 and a Sikorsky UH60L US Army helicopter. At the same time, they released an an urgent recommendation report calling for the FAA to close the helicopter route that the military helicopter was following…

Read more… 21 Mar 25

American Airlines Fire at Denver: What We Know So Far

The big news this week is video footage of American Airlines flight 1006 which caught fire at Denver airport yesterday. American Airlines flight 1006 was a passenger flight scheduled for a two-hour flight from Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth, departing Colorado Springs on time at 16:37 local time.  There were six crew and 172…

Read more… 14 Mar 25

Guest Post: The “Miracle on the Levée”

I’m on the road this week but luckily for us, my friend Elisa Bird agreed that I could share one of her great articles with you all. Given the frantic pace of aviation news lately, I thought perhaps a visit to an accident of yesteryear with Elisa’s insight would be welcome, specifically around the emergency…

Read more… 7 Mar 25

Accident Reports

Farewell Flight Turns Fatal in Cairns

On the 12th of August in 2024, a pilot fatally crashed a Robinson R44 into the top of a hotel building in Cairns, Australia. The pilot held a commercial helicopter…

No Masks, No Oxygen, No Chance

On the 4th of June 2023, a Cessna Citation 560 aircraft crashed in Montebello, Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers. The NTSB released their report on the 14th of…

Demystifying

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

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…

Extreme Turbulence in Singapore Airlines flight 321

A few days ago (21st of May 2024), Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered heavy turbulence on a passenger flight from London-Heathrow to Singapore. There were 229 on board, including eighteen…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

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…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

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.…

Fun Stuff

Friday Lightness: A Short Respite from Crash Reports

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…

Terminally Early: The Berlin Viewing Platform

Mistakes were made. All of them were mine. Before I left for Dresden, I planned out my full itinerary. Berlin is a much busier airport than Tallinn, so I needed…