Aviation News

BBC reported the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has fined Southwest Airlines a whopping $140 million for last year’s holiday meltdown that canceled roughly 17,000 flights and stranded more than 2 million passengers.  The media outlet noted the penalty imposed on Southwest is about 30 times more than other previous fines against an airline in U.S. history. […]

The tragic double-fatal crash of a high-performance airplane could potentially have easily been avoided, according to one of the top experts in the field. The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report (text available here on the Aviation Safety Network) on the Dec. 7 crash of a 1965 Beechcraft 35-C33 Debonair that killed […]

According to local Belgian news sources, law enforcement officers thwarted a group of some 700 climate activists who tried to storm Antwerp Airport last week in an effort to disrupt flight operations. About 20 of the activists from the Netherlands-based group Code Rood (Code Red), also known as Code Rouge, did manage to break through […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), together with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and the Alaska Pilots Association, are stepping up to defend YouTuber Trent Palmer in his bid to overturn an FAA suspension. The advocacy groups addressed the federal appeals court on Palmer’s behalf, maintaining that the National Transportation Safety Board has consistently […]

The latest news on the 10-year-old mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 comes out of Australia, this week, where a 77-year-old fisherman claims he likely snagged part of the Boeing 777 wing in his nets, but his reports were ignored by authorities. Kit Olver said that six months after the flight disappeared on March 8, […]

Boeing’s 747 entered service in 1970 when pilot salaries were so high people joked that the signature hump atop the forward fuselage was designed in so that the captains could sit on their wallets. Based on terms of a new contract yesterday (Dec. 20), Southwest Airlines (SWA) might need to send its fleet of 737s […]

According to a Forbes article published yesterday (Dec. 19), NetJets management and its pilots union remain far apart on contract negotiations. NetJets says it has offered a 52.5% pay increase (cumulatively spread out through 2029), while the pilots representatives claim it would take a 60% increase “on day one” to be competitive with airline pay. […]

The pilot and photographer aboard a television news helicopter were killed when it crashed in a wooded area of southern New Jersey Tuesday night (Dec. 19). The single-engine Eurocopter AS350B2 went down in the Wharton State Forest, about 30 miles from Philadelphia, around 8 p.m. while returning from an assignment on the New Jersey shore […]

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is pleased that Congress has extended Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding through a second budget extension. But the association repeated its stance that a multiyear authorization is sorely needed. The most recent extension will fund the FAA through March 8, 2024, under the same terms as the last long-term […]

Dallas-area Part 135 operator JSX announced yesterday (Dec. 19) it has signed letters of intent (LOIs) to acquire up to 330 hybrid-electric aircraft from three separate manufacturers. The agreements are for 32 nine-seat aircraft from U.S-based Electra (with options for 50 more), 50 30-seat ES-30s from Heart Aerospace of Sweden (with options for 50 more), […]