Accidents/NTSB

In the wake of last week’s troubling indications that a trained First Officer intentionally crashed an Airbus A320 in the French Alps, I couldn’t help but wonder if passengers boarding airliners are suddenly giving the crews the fisheye. Truthfully, I can’t really say I wouldn’t, but I’m no more worried about a repeat of Germanwings […]

Lacking a better descriptor, I’ll call today’s blog an examination of confirmation bias. We all know this as the tendency to seek or select only that information which tends to confirm our own opinions and prejudices. I have it. You have it. We all have it, to some degree. A reader wrote yesterday to ask […]

Over the next week or 10 days, I’ll be writing a few blogs on aviation risk assessment—how people judge it and how they mitigate it. While I’m getting started on that, a reader wrote to challenge my assessment of the J-3 Cub’s safety and crashworthiness. I touched on this in the Aviation Consumer article that […]

Certainly the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370 can be classified as the greatest mystery since Amelia Earhart. But after numerous conversations with airline colleagues, aviation friends, neighbors, workout buddies and bartenders, I’ve uncovered another mystery. Despite scientific evidence that proves otherwise, many of these educated people are emphatic in their belief that a 650,000-pound airplane […]

I’m up early every morning and my normal sweep of the overnight aviation news turned up that stunning video of the ATR crash in Taipei. Even in my pre-caffeinated state, the video practically lifted me out of my chair. My brain couldn’t quite parse what my eyes were seeing. And now, what I think all […]

The crew of the TransAsia Airways ATR-72 that crashed into a river near Taipei on Tuesday reportedly transmitted “Mayday, mayday, engine flameout,” according to a BBC report, but officials did not immediately verify the communications with ATC. Whatappears to be adashcam videoposted by SkyNet shows the turboprop striking a bridge in a near 90-degree left […]

I’m figuring at the very least, CPO Kurt Fredrickson and PO2 Tara Molle deserve a nice fruit basket and future Christmas cards from Cirrus. In the course of their normal duties, these two Coast Guard NCOs delivered promotional gold for Cirrus when they edited a stunning video of the Cirrus SR22 ditching off Maui on […]

When considering how to crash, my first bit of advice is don’t do it. Since the reality of any flight is that things can go wrong, that isn’t particularly helpful, I know. What can go wrong? Your crankshaft can break, your fuel lines can clog or, if you are a damn fool, you can run […]

Cockpit cameras and improved locator technology are among the recommendations the NTSB put before the FAA Thursday in the wake of investigations including the crash of Air France 447 and the yet-to-be-found Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Following up on a technology forum last fall, the NTSB reiterated its idea thata “crash-protected image recording system” to […]