Latest Posts   –  Page 5

The Sad Story of the Seawind 3000 N8UU

For this post, I’m going to start with the NTSB report of an accident which took place on the 3rd of July 2021 on Lake Michigan. The aircraft was a Seawind 3000, a fixed wing single-engine amphibious aircraft. The defining event is listed as ditching, which seems odd for an amphibious aircraft and the poor…

Read more… 7 Jan 22

The Most Popular Posts of 2021

Last year, I commented that the most popular posts tended to be older ones which I thought was maybe because people had more time to read in lockdown and went back through the archives. But having investigated more, it is clear that it takes some time for posts to peak in popularity. This year is…

Read more… 31 Dec 21

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas eve and it is snowing and I am lounging around in my pyjamas making mulled wine and braising beef for a special meal for tonight. You mostly know Cliff from his quick fixes to the server, (although he is the one to thank for the design and functionality of this entire website!)…

Read more… 24 Dec 21

Questions and Answers: It’s Your Turn

A Fear of Landing reader asked me a great question in email. Is there some way of asking general technical questions that relate to aircraft or airport operations rather than a specific post. One of your posts discussed runway naming, but I’ve got more questions about this. This particular example could be answered by yourself…

Read more… 17 Dec 21

Super DC-3 Belly Landing at Merrill Field, Alaska

Last Wednesday, the 8th of December 2021, a 69-year-old Super DC-3 landed wheels-up at Anchorage airport in Alaska. Everyone cheered. The Super DC-3 is a later version of the DC-3 with a longer fuselage, increased stabiliser surfaces and more powerful engines. The first flight of the Super DC-3 took place in 1949. This Super DC-3,…

Read more… 10 Dec 21

Causal Factors of the Piper Malibu Crash near Guernsey

Sometimes it seems like these posts get longer every year that I keep doing this. This collection of details from the AAIB report that I left out of the Piper Malibu crash near Guernsey is almost as long as the original post. But there are a number of aspects that are interesting to look at…

Read more… 3 Dec 21

Accident Reports

Bird Opens Cargo Door on A320

On the 20th of June in 2011, an Airbus A320-212, registration CS-TKJ, taxied to runway 05 at Aeroporto de Madeira for a scheduled morning flight from Funchal to Copenhagen with…

Alitalia flight 404: The result of a dozen small decisions

Last week, we looked at the key events that led to the Alitalia flight 404 crash. A few points from the previous post: Maintenance replaced both radio receivers in the…

Demystifying

I am a teapot

A reader contacted me to ask about a missing flight 404; they had heard on a trivia podcast that the original computer error message 404 was based on two flights…

The Legend of the Ghost of Kyiv

On the 25th of February 2022, Plane & Pilot magazine shared a video of the “Ghost of Kyiv” overflying Kyiv in a Ukrainian MiG-29. An unnamed Ukrainian fighter pilot shot…

History

Avro York Runway Excursion at Stansted

While researching another subject, I discovered this accident report from 1956 which I just had to share with you. Normally, an aviation accident investigation is done by a group of…

Amazing Aerial View of Edinburgh

When I first saw this image, I assumed it was result of modern image manipulations, maybe even the poster for a film. It was too perfect and too modern to…

Fun Stuff

Funniest Thing You've Heard On the Radio

I’ve been struggling this week and was just panicking that I would not have a post finished in time for you for today when I discovered that Reddit had saved…

A Little Bit of Everything

There’s so much great aviation writing and video out there and I’m always appreciative when people send me fun things; it seems a shame not to share them! So here’s…