Accidents/NTSB

The idea of an inflight fire rightfully scares the bejabbers out of pilots. Uncontrolled combustion in a confined space is ugly enough—adding altitude and speed to the mix can make a fire lethal in short order. It’s no wonder that pilots dealing with an inflight fire have jumped out of their aircraft even though they […]

A JetBlue Airways Airbus 320 made an emergency landing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday after a laptop computer stored in an overhead began emitting smoke. The flight landed safely with no injuries. Passengers told news outlets that the incident caused significant smoke in the cabin, although none reported signs of flames. The flight was […]

The NTSB this week released a preliminary report on the fatal Learjet crash in Teterboro two weeks ago, in which two pilots were killed. While approaching the airport, the crew started to turn toward the assigned runway later than usual, the safety board said. The airplane didn’t start to turn until it was less than […]

I suppose it was just a matter of time before Dunning-Kruger popped up in an aviation reference and let me proudly say one of our aviation publications made the pioneering leap. The recent reference was a throwaway in an article about accidents used to explain why some pilots take on more weather than they can […]

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 NTSB issued its preliminary report this week on the fatal crash of an Icon A5 on May 8 in California. A witness, who was aboard a boat on Lake Berryessa, told investigators he saw the A5 flying over the lake about 30 to 50 feet above the water, at what seemed to be a […]

With the potential banning of laptops from airliner cabins under hot debate in Europe this week, I find myself once again recoiling at how people describe their thinking on this topic. Not to mention other risk-related issues. Notice I did not say “safety-related.” I saw a quote go pixeling by in which the speaker said […]

The Coast Guard said late Tuesday that is has spotted debris in the water near where a missing Mitsubishi MU-2B is believed to have disappeared on Monday. The flight was en route from Puerto Rico to Florida when controllers lost radar contact with it 15 miles east of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Onboard the aircraft […]

The U.S. plan to ban laptops from airliner cabins on flights originating in Europe is drawing increasing resistance from the European Union, a UK pilot union and business travelers. EU aviation authorities will meet this week to consider the proposed laptop ban. The issue became the center of a Washington political firestorm this week on […]

A Learjet 35 crashed in a parking lot while on approach to Runway 1 at Teterboro Airport, in New Jersey, about 3:30 Monday afternoon, killing the two pilots. The two, who reportedly were professional crew members, were the only people on board. The jet had taken off from Philadelphia International Airport, and was owned by […]