Accidents/NTSB

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 […]

A wet microburst with wind gusts up to 60 mph destroyed a hangar at Houston’s Hobby Airport Tuesday April 3. According to news reports no one was inside the hangar when the microburst occurred and no one was injured. The hangar, owned by Jet Aviation, had four aircraft inside that were damaged. An additional four […]

An Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student pilot and FAA examiner were killedWednesdaymorning when the Piper PA-28 they were flying crashed shortly after takeoff from Daytona Beach International Airport. The aircraft impacted in a pasture and some witnesses said they saw the aircraft’s wing separate from the fuselage before the crash.The wing was reportedly located 150-200 yards […]

Two people died when a Cessna 150 collided with a Cessna 525 Citation jet on the runway at Marion Municipal Airportin Indiana on Monday afternoon, the FAA has reported. The C150 was attempting to take off to the southeast, at about 5:09 p.m., when it struck the tail of the Citation, which had just landed […]

In a preliminary report released on Monday, the NTSB summarized its investigation so far into the helicopter accident in New York that killed five passengers on a sightseeing flight on March 11. The board says the pilot told them he provided a safety briefing before the flight, and told the passengers where to find the […]

The FAA on Thursday published an emergency order that prohibits the use of supplemental passenger-restraint systems in doors-off flight operations that can’t be released quickly in an emergency. “This order formalizes the FAA’s prior communications on these operations,” the agency said. The FAA had already told operators last week to stop the “doors-off” tours. The […]

An Alaska pilot was fined $25,000 last week and given probation and restitution after being charged with felony assault for striking a man in a boat while buzzing him in a De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane. The incident happened on the Mulchatna River near Dillingham in June 2014. The victim survived but suffered permanent brain […]

Aviation regulation theory couldn’t be simpler. The freckle-necked masses aren’t expert enough to assess the relative risks in boarding a flying machine so we, as a society, allow the government to establish certain standards and rules designed to eliminate the most egregious practices that people trying to make money in the flying game will, quite […]

The NTSB Monday called on the FAA to prohibit commercial flights of all kinds that secure passengers without quick-release mechanisms. The agency’s urgent safety recommendation followed the FAA’s announcement on Friday to prohibit so-called doors-off helicopter tour flights unless quick-release harnesses are available for passenger restraint. Both recommendations come in the wake of fatal crash […]

Two Cirrus aircraft collided at Florida’s Palatka Airport last week and although both airplanes were substantially damaged, no one was injured. Initial reports indicate that neither aircraft deployed the CAPS parachute system and the collision appeared to have occurred close to or over the runway on short final. A news photo showed that the aircraft […]