Latest Posts – Page 55
When Pre-Flight Prep Becomes Criminal
The accident took place on the 9th of September 2017 shortly after take-off from Manchester City Airport, a municipal airfield near the Manchester Ship Canal in the north of England. Manchester City Airport opened in 1930 and has not changed much since then: the control tower, terminal building and hangar are all the original buildings…
Read more… 1 Nov 19
Ghost Planes and Spooky Things
I noticed yesterday that the nights were getting longer and there’s a distinct chill to the air. Rudy then mentioned Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season, coinciding (not coincidentally) with All Saints’ Eve and Halloween. And what better time to share aviation’s best spooky story, the ghosts of flight 401.…
Read more… 25 Oct 19
Engine Out Over Europe
On the 23rd of August 2019, The Aviation Herald reported that a Smartwings Boeing 737-800 suffered an engine failure in flight. The Boeing 737, registration OK-TVO, departed Samos, Greece at 06:27 UTC for scheduled passenger flight QS-1125 to Prague in the Czech Republic with 170 passengers on board. About 15 minutes into the flight, flying…
Read more… 18 Oct 19
Misdiagnosis: Convair Crash at Wonderboom (part 2)
Last week, we went through the flight and crash of a Convair 340/440 at Wonderboom Airport in Pretoria. As a quick recap, as the Convair rotated the left engine caught fire. The flight crew declared an emergency but they lost control of the aircraft while still turning back as the fire melted through the aileron…
Read more… 11 Oct 19
Final Report: Convair Crash at Wonderboom, Pretoria
Last year, I wrote about the fatal Convair Crash at Pretoria which took place in June 2018. The final report came out in August which gives a lot more information than we had at the time. Convair was an American aircraft manufacturing company best known for its military aircraft, including the B-36 Peacemaker and the…
Read more… 4 Oct 19
NTSB Summary: Assumptions Can Be Fatal
Yesterday the NTSB released a Safety Recommendation Report regarding the recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes and subsequent grounding of the aircraft. I am particularly interested in this report in the aftermath of two in-depth articles that came out recently. The New York Times published William Langeweische’s What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max. As…
Read more… 27 Sep 19
Accident Reports
Any Landing You Can Float Away From: Successful Ditching in the Arctic
On the 29th of July 2024, a light aircraft encountered engine trouble off the coast of Greenland and was forced to ditch in the North Atlantic. The aircraft was a…
Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found
In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…
Demystifying
Another quick round of questions and answers
It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…
Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash
The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…
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
Aviation Stories You Might Have Missed
I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. This week, I’ve put together a compilation of interesting items in the press that you might have missed while enjoying…
Nathan Pyle Strange Worlds
Thank you so much for all the kind words. I don’t quite have the wherewithal to respond to each of you individually but I very much appreciate all of you…
