AVweb’s Flight Safety section offers in-depth coverage of aviation safety topics, including accident analyses, risk management strategies, regulatory updates, and pilot training insights. Designed for pilots, instructors, and aviation professionals, this section provides timely information to enhance situational awareness and promote best practices in flight operations.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found an overall decrease in fatal accidents in U.S. civil aviation for 2020 along with significant reductions in flight activity for the year. The board noted that 332 people were killed during general aviation operations last year compared to 414 in 2019. The general aviation fatal accident rate also […]
AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were in the right place at the right time to potentially save a pilot’s life off the coast of Florida on Friday. The federal agents were conducting a “maritime operation” when they came upon a sinking aircraft. “As agents and deputies approached the sinking plane, an individual was spotted […]
The actuators that move the elevators of a privately operated MD-87 that crashed at Houston Executive Airport Oct. 19 were jammed in the trailing edge down position and that made it impossible for the aircraft to take off. The NTSB preliminary report says the elevator actuators were both bent enough that they prevented the elevators […]
The FAA will start vetting the engineers Boeing designates as safety inspectors after the agency found many didn’t have the qualifications or experience needed to be effective in the job. In a letter of complaint to Boeing obtained by the Seattle Times, the agency said it came across inspectors, who are designated to sign off […]
Medidata Solutions co-founder Glen de Vries and flight instructor Thomas Fischer were killed in the crash of a Cessna 172 on Thursday. A private pilot with an instrument rating, de Vries, 49, travelled to space alongside actor William Shatner onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft last month. Fischer, 54, owned Fischer Aviation, a flight school […]
The National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) is preparing for the 50th broadcast of its monthly MentorLIVE livestreaming program. The program, which launched in June 2017, is designed to provide specialized safety messages and educational content for flight instructors and general aviation pilots. MentorLIVE has logged more than 116,000 unique viewers to date. “This important […]
There’s normal, and then there’s normal. Which is to say that while much of aviation relies on routine procedures and aircraft configurations, among other things, there are exceptions to most norms. For example, the FAA long ago declared a “normal” landing to be one with an airplane’s wing flaps, if any, fully deployed. That’s not […]
AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]
The FAA is calling in backup to tackle the continuing surge in violent behavior in airliners. The agency is now referring the worst examples of unruly passengers to the FBI for criminal prosecution. “This is a priority for both agencies,” the FAA said in a tweet posted Saturday. Among the cases heading to the FBI […]
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