Accidents/NTSB

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 […]

A pilot aboard Asiana Flight 214 called for a go-around 1.5 seconds before the tail of the aircraft struck a seawall off the end of Runway 28L and San Francisco International Airport Saturday morning. At a news conference Sunday, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the cockpit voice recorder also recorded a crew member calling for […]

On Saturday afternoon, I was grinding away on the cross trainer at my local gym watching CNN try cover the Asiana crash at San Francisco. I say “try” because reporters with absolutely no meaningful information were attempting to fill air time. Nothing new about that. For the hour or so that I watched the coverage, […]

The CEO of Asiana Airlines has ruled out technical issues with the aircraft involved in Saturday’s landing accident in San Francisco. “For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or (its) engines,” Yoon Young-doo said at a news conference in Seoul Sunday. Yoon would not be drawn into blaming […]