Accidents/NTSB

Furlough of FAA aviation safety inspectors and NTSB accident investigators may put the country in default of its obligations under an aviation treaty that sets standards for safety for ICAO, former FAA lawyer Loretta Alkalay told Forbes magazine this week. The U.S. failure to approve a federal budget and subsequent partial government shutdown has furloughed […]

Every year the National Transportation Safety Board allows organizations outside the federal government to enroll students in aircraft accident investigation school. This is not a watered-down version; rather, its the same course provided to new investigators. The vast majority of students are representatives of entities whose employees, products, or services are likely to be involved […]

The NTSB Thursday announced it has issued a Final Rule applicable to the aviation certificate enforcement appeals process and that it is also issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to extend one of that rule’s benefits to pilots involved in emergency enforcement cases. The Final Rule allows pilots subjected to certificate enforcement to appeal to […]

NASA announced Wednesday that it had teamed up with the U.S. Navy and the FAA to drop a CH-46E helicopter fuselage into the ground as part of an effort to improve the safety and performance of helicopters and construction techniques. A second test will take place next summer, subjecting to the same forces a CH-46E […]

The Rockwell Turbo Commander 690B that crashed into two houses in New Haven, Conn., on Friday was inverted when it hit the homes, the NTSB says. But spokesman Patrick Murray told Reuters the pilot, retired Microsoft vice president Bill Henningsgaard, did not make any distress calls as he turned the aircraft to land in rainy […]

The NTSB this week released its latest safety statistics, and the rate for general aviation aircraft showed little improvement. Earl Weener of the NTSB, who is himself an active GA pilot, has been working to help focus FAA efforts toward reducing GA accidents, and he’s hopeful that programs now underway will have substantial effects over […]

The NTSB Thursday said it had evidence that the nosegear of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 with 150 aboard touched down prior to the mains and collapsed as the jet landed at LaGuardia, July 22. Video “and other sources,” the agency said, are consistent with the nosegear making contact prior to the main landing gear. […]

A newly released 322-page report on the Sept. 3, 2010, fatal crash of a UPS Boeing 747-44F noted “catastrophic uncontained fire” in an area that carried a “significant number” of lithium batteries as cargo, but did not resolve how the batteries ignited.Both pilots were killed in the crash. There were no other people on board. […]

The NTSB Thursday released the first in a series of videos highlighting circumstances and decision-making that have led to GA accidents with fatal outcomes and seeks to identify and reduce risks for GA pilots. Four more videos will follow. The videos, dubbed Video Safety Alerts, by the NTSB all run less than 5 minutes in […]

I do it. You do it. We all do it. As pilots, in the wake of an accident like Asiana 214 last Saturday in San Francisco, we crank up our piety and discipline and decline public comment until the investigators are done. But amongst ourselves, theres no such restraint and theres not much in the […]