On the 25th of February 2016, a Boeing 737-800 and a Falcon 2000 were involved in an airprox incident over Germany. The Boeing 737 was passenger flight ENT-511 from Gdansk, Poland to Jerez, Spain. The flight was operated by Enter Air, a low-cost Polish charter airline operating flights to popular holiday destinations all over Europe.…
Read more… 11 Nov 16
This story of a light aircraft crash in Northern Spain was one that I didn’t quite have space for in Why Planes Crash Case Files: 2003. The date was the 27th of June in 2003. The aircraft was a Socata TB-20 Trinidad. The pilot was German, 58 years old and an experienced private pilot whose…
Read more… 4 Nov 16
I’m excited to announce that the third book in my Why Planes Crash series will be out next Tuesday, the 1st of November! Why Planes Crash Case Files: 2003 follows eleven aircraft disasters from 2003, detailing how the accidents happened and how they might have been avoided. This “CSI for aviation enthusiasts” series examines both…
Read more… 28 Oct 16
Last week, there was a frightening near-miss on the runway at Shanghai airport. Although there is no official report yet, the details are available on the Aviation Herald incident page. It was the 11th of October and the weather was clear with good visibility. China Eastern flight MU-5106, an Airbus A330-300, was a scheduled domestic…
Read more… 21 Oct 16
I’m on the road this week and unfortunately, I don’t have the time or the resources right now to research and write on the subjects below. Here instead, then, is a list of the things I would write about if I could. Student Pilot Crash Possibly Intentional The flight instructor, who survived the crash, told…
Read more… 14 Oct 16
I almost dismissed this as a variation of the diver found in tree urban myth, in which a helicopter fighting a forest fire supposedly scooped up a diver when collecting water and then deposited the water and the diver onto the burning trees, leaving the body to be found there at a later date. There’s…
Read more… 7 Oct 16
Why KLM Cut the Steering Cables on Two Perfectly Functional Boeing 737s
Last month, we looked at the night of 28th of November 2004 at Barcelona Airport. KLM 1673 ran off the runway at high speed, stopping just short of a canal.…
KLM 1673 Veers Off the Runway with Full Right Rudder
On the 28th of November 2004, a Boeing B737 ran off the runway at Barcelona Airport. The weather had been good at Barcelona that evening. The flight crew agreed to land…
How Important is Having a Sterile Cockpit?
This question was posted to r/flying by a private pilot who wanted to know: do airline pilots ever engage in small talk about irrelevant things during taxiing, run-up, takeoff, and…
Someone has to write the TAF
It turns out that there a person sitting there deciding what the weather is going to do. Which seems obvious, except that I had somehow never asked msyelf who “someone”…
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…
Petrified, Petrified, Petrified
There’s been some interesting reporting in the UK media about a “near disaster” over Canary Wharf involving the captain having to intervene (the horror!) after air data systems failed on…
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…