FAA and Regs

A pilot was injured in the runway crash of a prototype flying car at Willow Run Airport near Detroit on Friday. WDIV TV reported the crash happened about 1 p.m. while the Detroit Flying Cars WD-1 was undergoing taxi tests. The station said it was told by Wayne County Airport Authority officials that the WD-1 […]

Thirty-six members of the U.S. Senate sent a bipartisan letter to the FAA on Tuesday urging the administration to implement a provision that would make airports using the contract tower program eligible for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants. The provision allowing AIP funding for airports with contract towers was included in the FAA Reauthorization Act […]

Eighteen months after a serious fatigue-related close call at San Francisco Airport involving an Air Canada airliner, Canada has announced it’s tightening crew rest requirements. Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Wednesday the new regs will bring Canada in line with most other countries in applying rest requirements that vary according to the time of day […]

The FAA has announced that is redesigning flight paths and air traffic control procedures for aircraft flying over Central and South Florida as part of its Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) airspace modernization initiative. The administration says the endeavor, called the South-Central Florida Metroplex project, will replace “dozens of existing air traffic procedures with […]

The nasty mix of ice and snow that blanketed the Southeast on the weekend is expected to linger through Monday, cancelling thousands of flights and causing a ripple through the whole system. Charlotte Douglas International Airport appeared to be the hardest hit major airport. Although the temperature increased to just above freezing late Sunday, it […]

Children haven’t traditionally been the target of FAA compliance efforts but Buzzy the Drone will lead the agency into the holiday drone-giving season to keep kids from flying their new treasures where they shouldn’t be. The agency rolled out a YouTube video earlier this week featuring the cheerful cartoon creation with the somewhat daunting task […]

An Oklahoma helicopter company has been fined more than $50,000 for dodging FAA regulations and illegally chartering fixed-wing aircraft. Interstate Helicopters and its owner James Paul Johnson were caught in an FAA enforcement effort to curb illegal charters. The company pleaded guilty to passing off charters as dry lease deals. On paper, customers leased the […]

A skydiving instructor who fell to his death in a tandem jump in Lebanon, Maine last September committed suicide according to the Maine Medical Examiner’s Officeas reported by WBZ in Boston. As we reported in September, Brett Bickford became separated from the customer during the tandem jump. The medical examiner’s office has ruled Brett Bickford’s […]

Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson says the company will return to space before the end of the year and he’s looking forward to a trip there shortly afterward. The company essentially had to start over after losing its spacecraft SpaceShipTwo in a crash in 2014 that killed one of the two pilots onboard. There will […]

A Frontier Airlines A320 returned to Las Vegas immediately after takeoff on Friday after the right cowl flipped up on takeoff. The flapping aluminum met a predictable demise and passengers recorded the mishap with their phones. The short climb out and the quick return were reportedly routine but the plethora of smartphones at the ready […]