Aviation Law

Four crew members and six passengers from a Canadian charter company’s CRJ 100 have been released on bail but ordered to remain in the Dominican Republic while the discovery of about $25 million worth of cocaine on their aircraft is investigated by local authorities. As we reported earlier, the crew of the Pivot Airlines aircraft […]

A Russian pilot who lives in Europe is asking aviation officials there to get more specific in aviation sanctions prompted by the invasion of Ukraine. The pilot, whom we’ve granted anonymity since an earlier version of the story was published, told AVweb the EU’s ban on Russian aviation has grounded pilots who have no connection […]

An exasperated FBI is offering a $10,000 reward to curb a massive increase in laser attacks at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In the first nine weeks of 2022, more than 100 airline crews reported laser attacks. There have been no serious incidents but law enforcement is stepping up efforts to find those responsible. Those responsible are […]

A bipartisan group of senators and representatives has introduced the Cabin Air Safety Act in both houses to tighten regulations surrounding so-called fume incidents in which cabin bleed air is contaminated by toxic chemicals from the airplane itself or from external sources. “Pilots, flight attendants and passengers should never have to worry about toxic fumes […]

Reuters is reporting that aircraft leasing companies are filing billions of dollars in insurance claims trying to reclaim the value of about 100 airliners that have been effectively seized by Russia. The companies say they have little hope their Russian customers will ever give back the planes they have leased since the Monday deadline for […]

A judge in New Zealand has theoretically clipped a rebel 76-year-old pilot’s wings for good after determining that his long history flouting the regs makes it unlikely he’ll change his ways. According to Stuff, Judge Chris Tuohy of the Wellington District Court said the litany of half-baked defenses Lindsay McNicol had offered for a decades-long […]

Former Boeing test pilot Mark Forkner has been acquitted of deceiving the FAA about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) on the Boeing 737 MAX. A jury took less than two hours to reach the verdict in the federal district court in Fort Worth on Wednesday. Forkner, the former chief technical pilot on the MAX […]

Russia says it’s stepping up production and development of domestic airliners in light of sanctions that have virtually grounded its fleet of Western-built aircraft and trapped dozens overseas. Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borosov said the main focus will be on MS-21 and SuperJet 100-seat airliners. “There has been no halt to the work of these […]

The Canadian government has grounded a Russian cargo aircraft after the plane delivered a load of COVID-19 tests—for the Canadian government. The Volga Dnepr An-124, now the largest civilian cargo plane in operation, arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Feb. 27 on one of a series of charter flights for the Canadian government’s pandemic […]

The U.S. was under pressure Sunday to close its airspace to Russian aircraft operators now that most European nations and Canada have banned them. Despite its dim view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. continued to welcome and dispatch Aeroflot flights as of late Sunday. But it also appears the airline suspended flights to […]