FAA and Regs

The FAA has uncovered new information from the wreckage of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 “concerning the aircraft’s configuration just after takeoff that, taken together with newly refined data from satellite-based tracking of the aircraft’s flight path, indicates some similarities between the ET302 and [Lion Air] JT610 accidents,” according to the emergency order issued by the […]

President Donald Trump has announced the issuance of an emergency order grounding all flights of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the U.S. as of Wednesday afternoon as a result of the crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on Sunday and Lion Air Flight 610 last October. The president said he has spoken with Secretary of […]

I suspect if you walked around the back of 800 Independence Ave. in Washington, you’d find a tanker truck of Maalox with two-inch lines running into the C-suites upstairs. The political pressure on the top echelon must be like nothing else we’ve seen in quite a while. While the rest of the world rushes to […]

A teenager has petitioned the FAA to exempt him from its minimum age requirements so he can set some records. The young man, 15, wants the FAA to allow him to be a fully certificated private pilot before he turns the minimum age of 17 so he can pursue some records that would be ambitious […]

The NTSB saysan Ameristar Charters MD-83 crew “did everything right” and likely saved their lives and those of 110 team members and supporters of the University of Michigan basketball team when the aircraft overran the runway at Ypsilanti Airport near Detroit last March. The aircraft’s right elevator mechanism had been damaged in a windstorm a […]

The FAA has reminded Southwest Airlines and its unionized mechanics who is really in charge when it comes to flight safety and not so subtly warned them not to let their current disputes get in the way. Southwest sued the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association a week ago implying its members grounded dozens of its planes […]

A banner towing pilot died and dozens of others had a close call on Friday when a banner plane flying along Fort Lauderdale’s beachfront hit a condo building and fell about 150 feet to a pool deck below. The Piper Pawnee operated by Aerial Banners Inc. hit the building between the 16th and 17th floor. […]

The FAA has issued a new rule prohibiting the transport of lithium ion cells or batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft. This revision of the Hazardous Materials Regulations also requires lithium ion cells and batteries to be shipped at not more than a 30 percent charge on cargo-only aircraft and limits the use of alternative […]

An Atlas Airlines Boeing 767 flying for Amazon Prime crashed just off the shore of Anahuac, Texas on Saturday and it’s presumed the three crew members died. Two bodies have been recovered. “It’s probably a crash that nobody would survive,” Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told USA Today. The aircraft descended at about 6,000 feet […]

Canada has dropped its ban on pilots with pre-existing Type 1 diabetes becoming commercial pilots. In 2001, the agency made pre-existing insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes a disqualifying condition for the commercial medical even though it had previously allowed pilots who developed diabetes after obtaining their commercial license to continue flying. Private pilot Austen McDonald, who […]