Latest Posts – Page 37
Fatal Crash of LSA at Santa Monica Airport
Yesterday at around 16:30 local time, a light sports aircraft crashed onto the runway of Santa Monica Airport (SMO) in California. The aircraft was a CSA SportCruiser, a two-seater aircraft also sometimes known as a PiperShort. The SportCruiser belonged to a flying school based at the airport. Initial reports are that a 15-year-old was on…
Read more… 9 Sep 22
Verdict: Crocodile Still Not Guilty
A few days ago, my friend Beth sent me a link to what seemed an unbelievable aviation story: Plane crash caused by escaped crocodile https://t.co/p7nVvg12dw — Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) August 31, 2022 Long-time readers of Fear of Landing will recognise the story immediately: I wrote about it in 2014. At the time, I concluded that there…
Read more… 2 Sep 22
Post-Pandemic Mystery at Heathrow
In June 2021, the British Air Accident Investigative Branch (AAIB) initiated a fascinating investigation after they noticed three similar incidents at London Heathrow over a three-day period. Soon, they realised that the three incidents, all involving blocked pitot tubes, were related. As the investigation continued, several more incidents were discovered. The pitot tube measures the…
Read more… 26 Aug 22
Pilot Departs Aircraft Without a Parachute
Last week, an NTSB preliminary report was released about a tragic accident that already had the aviation world wondering what on earth had happened. On the 29th of July 2022, an air traffic controller received a bewildering call. “My co-pilot just ran out the back of the plane.” The aircraft was a CASA 212-200, a…
Read more… 19 Aug 22
Aviation Videos and Articles for August
I always collect videos and links that I think you might enjoy but apparently, I have been neglecting to actually share them with you! So here’s a “best of the best”, the top videos and a few articles from the stack of links that’s been gathering dust on my desktop all year. This one has…
Read more… 12 Aug 22
Cabri G2 crash at Gruyére
On the afternoon of the 15th of June 2022, a light helicopter crashed near Gruyère Aérodrome in Switzerland. The Cabri G2, produced by Hélicoptères Guimbal, is a two-seater helicopter powered by a reciprocating (piston) engine. The helicopter, built in 2013, was owned and operated by Swiss Helicopter AG under the registration HB-ZDQ. The first two…
Read more… 5 Aug 22
Accident Analysis
The Anatomy of an A350–CRJ Collision at Atlanta
On the 10th of September 2024, an Airbus A350 took the tail off of a Bombardier CRJ at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, USA. Delta Air Lines flight 295…
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.…
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
Bird Strikes, Balloon Landings and Falling in Love with a Boeing 777
The exciting news on Fear of Landing this week was a huge scare about critical vulnerabilities in PHP. PHP is widely used on the web, including in WordPress, which is…
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…
