Latest Posts   –  Page 47

Dangerous Aerobatics : C-17 crash at Elmendorf (2010)

In 2010, a US Air Force transport plane crashed just one minute after take-off while practising for the Arctic Thunder Air Show at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska. ​ The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, a large military transport aircraft, was being flown by a highly qualified commander and three crew members, all of whom…

Read more… 12 Jul 19

Passenger-Related Safety Hazards

The ASRS Directline was the NASA publication for the Aviation Safety Reporting System which sadly is no longer producing articles but I’m pleased that they have offered me permission to reprint some of the best ones. I hope that you will enjoy this article from the ASRS Directline as much as I did. Passenger-Related Safety…

Read more… 5 Jul 19

It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s a car-plane!

This photograph was posted on Reddit and I immediately fell in love. Isn’t it fantastic? And the comments on the Reddit thread made me smile as well. This is like cartoon in real life. Only lacks fluffy clouds and smiling sun in the background. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they…

Read more… 28 Jun 19

ATC controller keeps cool: “That was a really bad experience.”

William and Cecilia Reid were travelling from their home in Clarksburg, West Virginia to Lake Placid New York in their Beechcraft Debonaire in order to visit family. It was the 1st of October 2016. They were climbing to 9,000 feet when something when something went terribly wrong. Cleveland Center suddenly got the following blood-chilling call.…

Read more… 21 Jun 19

Fatal Crash at Lukla

Exactly two months ago in Nepal, a Let L-410 Turbolet veered off the runway while taking off from Tenzing-Hillary (Lukla) Airport and crashed into two helicopters. On the 14th of April 2019, there were three crew on board the L-410. The first officer, who appears to have been the pilot flying, was killed in the…

Read more… 14 Jun 19

The Perplexing Disappearance of Varig flight 967

On the 30th of January 1979, Varig flight 967 departed Narita International Airport (Tokyo) for a cargo flight to Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport in Brazil. Half an hour after departure, it disappeared. Not very much is known about what happened but when people ask me how it can possibly be that MH370 has never…

Read more… 7 Jun 19

Accident Reports

Overrun in Ireland

On the 19th of February 2023, a private pilot arranged to meet with a flight instructor at Birr Airfield to fly a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. That morning, the flight instructor…

Icing, Systems, and Human Factors: Preliminary Findings on Voepass flight 2283

On the 9th of August 2024 at 16:22, Voepass flight 2283, a scheduled flight from Cascavel, Paraná, to Guarulhos, São Paulo entered a flat spin and crashed into a residential…

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…