Accidents/NTSB

Thursday’s tragic mid-air between a Cirrus SR22 and an R44 helicopter illuminated a watershed of sorts. With November near upon us, the accident marked the largest number of ballistic parachute deployments for Cirrus aircraft in a calendar year, but also the lowest rolling 12-month average of fatal accidents in the models’ history. If the two […]

Three people were reportedly killed Thursday afternoon at the Frederick, Maryland, airport when an airplane and a helicopter collided close to the runway. The airplane was a Cirrus SR22, according to WJZ-TV, and news photographs show firefighters with a deployed parachute from the aircraft. Two men aboard the Cirrus were taken to a Hagerstown, Maryland, […]

Bored as I sometimes am with Aviation Hall of Fame nominees and Lifetime Achievement Awards, to amuse myself, I’m inventing a new category: Best filming of a gear-up landing. I’m calling it the Oh-S&^t Award and hope to announce it every year about this time. I won’t lack for examples because there are (a) a […]

The NTSB announcedtoday that will take over and complete the investigation into the April 29, 2013, crash of a National Airlines Boeing 747 at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. The cargo flight had originated at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, stopped at Bagram for fuel and was departing to fly to Dubai when it crashed shortly after […]

The NTSB has released its preliminary report on the Oct. 7 fatal crash of a Cal Fire S-2F3AT tanker that was engaged in fighting the Dog Rock forest fire in Yosemite National Park, California. The NTSB reports that the crew of an aircraft that was operating as a controller for the firefighting operation and orbiting […]

Flying IFR under Part 91 gives us pilots an incredible amount of freedom. Yet, it is this relative freedom from heavy regulation which is largely responsible for general aviation’s safety record, and it, frankly, is not all that great. No, flying little airplanes is not as safe as flying the airlines. Nor is it as […]

Two U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornets collided over the Western Pacific Friday, resulting in the loss of both jets-one pilot has been rescued. A search is underway for the other pilot. A cruiser, destroyer and helicopters are currently conducting the search for the missing pilot. The aircraft were operating off the carrier USS Carl Vinson, which […]

Tuesday, the NTSB released a report on pilot drug use that, based on post-crash toxicology tests on pilots killed in aircraft accidents from 1990 through 2012, concluded drug use of all types, particularly over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, is up among pilots and that the risk of pilot impairment is on the rise. However, the study did […]

Its never good when a general aviation accident leads the evening news, but that was the case Friday when a TBM 900 became a ghost flight off the South Carolina coast and continued south before crashing in the water off Jamaica early in the afternoon. As we reported, the TBM departed Rochester, New York on […]

The pilot of a Cherokee that landed on or near the beach in Venice, Florida on July 27, killing two swimmers, told the NSTB he was worried that the aircraft would flip if landed in deep water. In a preliminary report (PDF) released on Thursday, the NTSB said the pilot, identified by local media as […]