Take a listen to the audio from this business jet at 2,000 feet when the door swung open. The recording is from liveATC.net and was edited and subtitled by Victor of VASAviation. Wheels Up is a membership-based private aviation company which offers a pay-as-you-fly aviation service to its members using a fleet of King Air…
Read more… 2 Oct 15
I’m often asked about government cover-ups and the “real story” behind well-known commercial incidents. Generally, it’s easy to give an optimistic answer. Most investigations carried out by most of the accident investigation bureaus are top class: thorough and honest and with a detailed report which allows us, the outsiders, to check their work. This case,…
Read more… 25 Sep 15
It’s clear by now that I’m obsessively rather interested in planes but not in a weird way. I usually limit myself to considering how they fly, how they look while they are flying, and how they sound when they pass overhead. I’ve never actually considered how they taste. One man did, however. Michel Lotito, a…
Read more… 18 Sep 15
On Tuesday there was an engine fire at McCarran International Airport which has made headline news in the US and the UK. A key reason that this incident is so incredibly interesting is because, despite the fire burning hot enough to melt windows on the aircraft, there were no serious injuries and no loss of…
Read more… 11 Sep 15
Today, on Times Warner Cable News: Pilot Caught on Camera Texting During Takeoff Looks bad, right? Except…how the heck could a passenger even see the pilot, let alone get video of the cockpit showing the pilot texting and checking twitter? Well, let’s watch the video. The pilot was a passenger. He was apparently seated halfway…
Read more… 4 Sep 15
I’ve booked a holiday! If the Welsh weather is good enough for the boat to make it across the sound, I’ll be staying on Skokholm Island for a week. There’s no wifi there so I’ve collected my recent favourite articles and videos to keep you busy until my return. I hope you enjoy! I loved…
Read more… 28 Aug 15
Social Media Influencers Weigh Down Aircraft
The fatal crash at Scottsdale Arizona took place directly after take-off. The passengers were a self-proclaimed crowd of social media influencers. The jet-setting influencer who had organised the flight, had…
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…
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 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,…
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…