Latest Posts – Page 33
The Weight and Balance of Air Midwest 5481
Air Midwest, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, was originally certified as an air carrier by the FAA in 1965. The airline originally consisted of a single Cessna 206, which transported human remains for area mortuaries. In 1968, the company began to provide a passenger service (for live passengers). The Mesa Air Group acquired the company in…
Read more… 16 Apr 21
Weight and Balance: How Much Do You Weigh, Miss?
A number of airlines suspended operations during the worst of the pandemic that has disrupted the world over the past year. One of these, a British charter airline owned by a German-Anglo travel and tourism company, were in the process of upgrading their systems, including their reservation software, when the pandemic hit. The integrated check-in…
Read more… 9 Apr 21
Lion Air flight 610 : The Previous Flight
We have explored the aircraft registered as PK-LQP in quite some detail, looking at the sequence of events leading up to the crash of Lion Air flight 610. The Maintenance The Faulty AOA Sensor The AOA Disagree Alert These pieces explore how the aircraft went into service with a faulty AOA sensor. It also shows…
Read more… 2 Apr 21
Pitch-up Illusion on Take-Off
On the 28th of April 2017, a single-engine turbo-prop flying at night under instruments crashed near Amarillo International Airport in Texas. The accident report had been available on the app.ntsb.gov site but appears to have been removed. You can download a copy using the CAROL query tool for the NTSB number CEN17FA168. This piece was…
Read more… 26 Mar 21
Impromptu Airshow
On the 26th of August 2019, a glider pilot posted a video of him flying his high performance glider at the Aeroplanes Trains and Automobiles event held two days earlier in Spanish Fork, Utah. The glider was a Schleicher ASW-27, a 15-metre sailplane certified in 1997. Designed by Gerhard Waibel, a famous German sailplane designer,…
Read more… 19 Mar 21
Disaster Recovery: Fear of Landing
In the early hours of Wednesday the 10th of March, a fire broke out at the OVH data centre in Strasbourg. The fire started in a room in the building known as SBG2 just before 01:00 local time. All services in all four buildings (SGB1, SGB2, SGB3 and SGB4) were halted while SGB2 blazed with…
Read more… 12 Mar 21
Accident Reports
Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air Collision
On the 12th of November 2022, a Bell P-63F Kingcobra fighter flew into a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber during the Wings Over Dallas airshow. All six crew members in…
"Totally a visibility issue."
On Sunday, the 27th of November 2022, a single-engine aircraft made national US news when it crashed through power lines in Gaithersburg, Maryland, coming to rest on a lattice tower.…
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
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…
A Few Good Stories
I’m in Dresden at the moment and I’m afraid I haven’t had a free moment to write you a new article. Luckily, lots of other people are on the internet…
Minz on Navigating Instrument Failure at 10,000 FeetThe number of time people get away with these things, just one hole in the Swiss cheese doesn’t line up……
Mike Scirocco on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionThanks for another interesting writeup. A sad story. I'm VERY happy to hear the FAA and ICA were informed with…
Pradeep Arora on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionTotally avoidable. Two different aircraft, operating in close quarters needs a plan. The AirBoss needs to be called out 
CHip on Wings Over Dallas: How Poor Systems Led to Mid-Air CollisionExcellent analysis. I hadn't realized that there were "air bosses" who would wing a show instead of giving cues for…
Mendel on Mid-air collision at Wings Over DallasThe final report is out. NTSB also put a summary on youtube, and it includes a flight track animation along…