Latest Posts – Page 60
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
Draco Written Off
One of the big events of the aviation calendar is the STOL competition which takes place every May in Valdez, Alaska. I wrote about the 2019 Valdez Fly In and STOL Competition a few months ago, specifically about an amazing home-built “bush plane” named Draco: The STOL competition was broadcast live and you can watch…
Read more… 20 Sep 19
Size Matters
This morning, I woke up to headlines about spilling coffee in the cockpit (thank you R and Mom) and so of course I had to find out what happened. The case was released yesterday in the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch S2/2019 Special along with a number of other interesting incidents. The incident in question…
Read more… 13 Sep 19
Air Canada flight 759, Sabotage and More Fire Fighting
There’s a lot of good content out there this week, so much so that I couldn’t resist putting together a round-up post sharing the best of it with you. This is a strong piece and exactly the kind of thing that I know you all love. The near crash of Air Canada flight 759 On…
Read more… 6 Sep 19
Accident Analysis
Fatal SR22 Stall on Final at Barwick LaFayette
On the 20th of March, 2025, a Cirrus SR22 crashed in LaFayette, Georgia during an instructional flight, killing both the pilot and the flight instructor. It was a good flying…
There Is a Parachutist in Front of You
On the 15th of June 2023, a light aircraft crashed into the runway at Aversi private airfield in Denmark. The aircraft, registered in Germany as D-EPRR, was a Cessna TU206G…
Demystifying
The Pilots, the Probes, and the AF447 Verdict
On the 21st of May 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal convicted Airbus and Air France of involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the crash of Air France flight 447,…
Meowing on Guard (an attempt at an explanation)
Last week a video went viral and it’s been fun to see the mainstream media coverage try to cover two pilots who were heard making animal noises on the radio. …
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
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…
