Yesterday, the 4th of April, the Ethiopian Accident Investigation Bureau investigating the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 released the Preliminary Report (local version stored at bottom of this post). Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, in the Boeing 737-8(MAX) registration number ET-AVJ, was a scheduled passenger flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. There were two flight…
Read more… 5 Apr 19
I’ve had a soft spot for the Dassault Rafale for a long time; I even included it in a short story under a slightly modified name and description. It’s a French twin-engine fighter which is so crazily agile that it’s aerodynamically unstable; digital fly-by-wire controls keep it under control. Designed to work with aircraft carriers,…
Read more… 29 Mar 19
The entire aviation world is focused on the Boeing 737 Max 8, especially as the details from the Lion Air cockpit voice recorder files have been leaked. The truth is, I don’t have a lot to say about it at this stage (unlike me to keep quiet, I know!) and so instead, I’ve put together…
Read more… 22 Mar 19
The news is dominated right now with the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 8 after a second fatal crash of a passenger jet which could be related to the onboard systems. There’s a LOT of questionable information out there and many of the explanations presume a certain level of aviation knowledge. I’d like to…
Read more… 15 Mar 19
Last week, this video of an Airbus A320 performing a frankly frightening looking approach followed by a go around was splashed all over social media. Here’s the original footage on Twitter with an apology for the swearing: @GibChronicle @RockRadio @GBCNewsroom this is the original version…. apologies for the swearing. pic.twitter.com/F7wtmwtVqi — MackeminGib (@mackemsin) February 25,…
Read more… 1 Mar 19
Two regional jets collided at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi last Saturday (9 Feb 2019). Both passenger jets were Embraer 190 owned by flag carrier airline Kenya Airways and were scheduled for routine maintenance. Apparently, one of the aircraft was in the process of a technical engine maintenance check when it “jumped off” while…
Read more… 22 Feb 19
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…
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…
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.…
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…