FAA and Regs

The world’s largest floatplane-only airline says it will be the first electrically powered airline and will convert its entire fleet of 41 vintage de Havilland Beaver, Otter and Twin Otter aircraft and one Cessna Caravan to electric motors. Harbour Air, which is based in Vancouver, Canada, runs daily scheduled service between Seattle and Vancouver and […]

Boeing and the FAA say they expect to finish a software and training update for the 737 MAX series of aircraft shortly. Boeing said it’s been working on the update since the crash of a Lion Air MAX 8 last October but the crash of an Ethiopian MAX 8 in early March prompted the issuance […]

The NTSB says a United Express Embraer 145 that ended up off the runway at Presque Isle, Maine, in early March also started there. In its preliminary report, the board said the regional jet, with 31 people onboard, lined up between the runway and taxiway on its first aborted landing attempt. On the second try, […]

James Baker famously called it “the worst ^%$&ing job in government.” He was referring to the job of White House chief of staff but he may as well have been talking about being FAA administrator. If it’s not the second-worst job in government, it’s surely in the top five. Now comes Steve Dickson, late of […]

The FBI has reportedly joined a criminal investigation into the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX in the wake of the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610, according to The Seattle Times. The report comes after Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Elaine Chao issued a memo (PDF) on Tuesday confirming […]

Image: Delta Former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson has been nominated by President Trump to become the next FAA Administrator. Recently retired as senior VP of flight operations at Delta, Dickson will, if approved by the Senate, take over an agency whose aircraft-certification procedures are under tremendous scrutiny after the second fatal crash of […]

The future of package delivery has arrived in Reno, Nevada with the FAA’s approval of beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations by Flirtey. The company’s drones will first be able to deliver automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to medical emergencies. The drones will be operated by pilots using onboard cameras to maneuver the aircraft. The medical deliveries are a […]

A low setting sun may have been a factor in a runway collision between a T-28 Trojan warbird and a Cessna 172 at Compton Woodley Airport near Los Angeles on Wednesday. A student in the 172 was killed and an instructor seriously injured. The T-28 pilot was unhurt. A video of the incident shows the […]

Ethiopia’s transport minister told reporters on Sunday that preliminary data from Ethiopian Flight 302’s flight data recorder showed “clear similarities” to data pulled from a similar Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed off Indonesia last October. Dagmawit Moges said the FDR, which appeared significantly damaged from the Ethiopian crash, is actually relatively intact. […]

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation (MCAS) system at the center of investigations into two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was misunderstood and mischaracterized in a flawed certification process as Boeing and the FAA rushed to bring the new jet to market, a Seattle Times investigation published Sunday alleges. Citing named and unnamed sources, […]