Accidents/NTSB

With pilot friends like this, who needs Comedy Central? The pilot of an experimental RV-6 in Michigan told a friend to get to the beach and watch for his flyby. As promised the sleek two-seater buzzed at 100 feet, made three passes—one is never enough—pulled up in a steep turn, stalled and hit the water, […]

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 web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final […]

The FAA and NTSB are now mulling the circumstances of a relatively minor helicopter crash in South Carolina that may go down in history as the first U.S. aircraft crash caused by a drone. According to the narrative available so far, the drone didn’t directly cause the crash but the pilot’s evasive maneuvers to avoid […]

Pilots still can’t land in crosswinds. These accidents are euphemistically labeled “loss of directional control,” or “pilot can’t land worth a hoot.” Rebuild shops stay busy replacing gear legs and props from everyday (every stinkin’ day) bad landings that usually don’t cause bodily harm. Tailwheel pilots are always aggressive on the brakes resulting in numerous […]

The pilot at the controls of a Learjet 35A until just before it crashed in Teterboro last year should not have been flying, according to documents released by the NTSB this week. Company policy required that first officers with a rating of 0, on a scale of 0 to 4, were not permitted to fly […]

Three people were killed and four badly injured when a sightseeing helicopter went down in the Grand Canyon Saturday. The aircraft was destroyed in the post-crash fire and at least two survivors were seen running from the wreckage before it exploded. The condition of the injured wasn’t immediately available. The helicopter was operated by Papillon […]

The further one gets from the regulated lower 48, the less those pesky rules get in the way. That necessariy leads to some really interesting accidents.Alaskans fly a helluva lot more than most humans and operate off some mind-bogglingly rough terrain, such as hillsides, glaciers, remote gravel bars or other unlikely surfaces. To fully grasp […]

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 web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final […]

A Robinson R44 helicopter crashed into a house in a gated community in Newport Beach, California, about 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, killing three of the four people on board. A person on the ground nearby also was injured by debris from the crash. A witness who spoke to CBS Los Angeles said he saw the […]

An internal defect caused an uncontained engine failure, leading to a fire, during the takeoff roll of a Boeing 767 in October 2016, the NTSB said in its probable-cause hearing on Tuesday. The subsurface defect led to cracking in a turbine disk. The cracks were undetectable using current inspection methods, the investigators found. “Even though […]