Accidents/NTSB

Southwest Airlines captain Tammie Jo Shults, 56, is being hailed as a hero for her deft and calm handling of an uncontained engine failure that damaged her Boeing 737 and claimed the life of passenger Jennifer Riordan on Tuesday. Throughout the emergency, Shults’ communications remained clear and direct as she diverted the plane to Philadelphia, […]

UPDATED: A female passenger was killed when an engine failed in flight aboard a Southwest Airlines 737 at 32,000 feet on Tuesday morning, sending shrapnel flying that broke a window and entered the cabin. The crew, en route from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Field on Tuesday morning, diverted to Philadelphia and made […]

Commercial fixed-wing pilots who fly under Part 135 (commuter and on-demand) should get the same FAA-approved CFIT training as helicopter pilots, the NTSB said Tuesday, in its report on a fatal accident in 2016. Two commercial pilots and a passenger died when a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan operated by Hageland Aviation Services crashed into mountainous […]

Months before the fatal helicopter crash into the East River that killed five passengers, pilots for the company operating the tours had warned management about unsafe conditions and harnesses that could make escape difficult. According to a story in TheNew York Times, the pilots “repeatedly requested more suitable safety gear” and one pilot warned managers […]

Electric Airplane Lessons Would I take lessons in an electric airplane? I might take initial instruction for a private pilot ticket or instrument rating in an electric airplane. The basics of angle of attack and so on won’t change because of the power plant but I simply cannot see advancing to cross country work in […]

The NTSB and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University officials are working together to determine what caused the PA-28R-201’s wing to fall off in mid-flight last week. The resulting accident killed two: Zach Capra, an ERAU student, and an FAA designated examiner, John S. Azma, conducting a checkride. Flight training resumed on Thursday for all aircraft at ERAU […]

In a week during which five military crashes killed seven service members, an article in the current issue of Newsweek raises questions about funding, training and maintenance in U.S. military aviation units. “The number of service members killed in noncombat aviation was 37 in 2017—almost double the 19 who died in 2016,” the piece states. […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine, and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports […]

You’ve focused intently on pre-flighting the airplane, and you’ve paid attention to passenger safety and comfort. But that twinge in your lower back as you line up on the centerline gives you a moment’s pause. Taxi back to the ramp or press on? If it’s a kidney stone, and the pain only gets worse at […]

An Air Force Thunderbird pilot was killed on Wednesday morning when his F-16 crashed during a routine aerial demonstration training flight near Nellis Air Force Base outside of Las Vegas. He has been identified as Major Stephen Del Bagno, 34, a 3,500-hour pilot in his first season with the Thunderbirds. According to a U.S. Air […]