Flight Safety

American Airlines has announced it will run its flights at full capacity starting July 1. In the past few months American and most other airlines have blocked off all or some of the middle seats in Economy but that will stop on Wednesday. “As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are […]

FAA and Boeing test pilots will start wringing out the updated version of the Boeing 737 MAX flight control software on Monday, according to a report by Reuters. Citing unnamed sources, the news agency said the pilots will spend three days in various flight configurations to test the effectiveness of the rewrite of software for […]

The FAA has signed off on significant changes to the Boeing 737 MAX’s flight control systems mandated by Canada and the European Union. The changes won’t delay the return to service but will cost Boeing money in the long term. According to the Seattle Times, the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) has demanded three changes […]

The FAA has issued an amendment expanding a special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) designed to provide regulatory relief for individuals unable to meet some training, experience, testing and checking requirements due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The original SFAR, which was published on April 30, extended the validity of medical certificates expiring from March 31, […]

As IFR pilots, we know that general aviation carries inherent risks. Sure, if we hide behind the stellar record of the airlines, general aviation looks safe, but our accident rate is many times higher than the airlines. Of course, most of us do our best to avoid gracing the pages of an NTSB report by […]

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 […]

A whistleblower says the FAA should pull Boeing’s production certificate for the Boeing 737 MAX because of the company’s “continued deception and gross errors in the design and production” of the aircraft. Curtis Ewbank, a 34-year-old flight deck systems specialist, wrote a letter to the Senate predicting more fatal crashes if systemic issues with the […]

Canadian military authorities say the pilot of a Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone anti-submarine helicopter was apparently overruled by the aircraft’s fly-by-wire flight director and autopilot just before the aircraft crashed in the ocean off Greece on April 30. Preliminary assessment of the flight data recorder information recovered from the wreck of the helicopter, a military version […]

During a Wednesday hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson acknowledged that the FAA and Boeing both made mistakes in regards to the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX. “The manufacturer made mistakes and the FAA made mistakes in its oversight of the manufacturer,” Dickson said […]

Tulsa-based Spartan College continues to add to its training fleet with new Pipers, the companies announced today. Although saying that Spartan “announced today an order for its first tranche of 22 factory-new training aircraft,” in fact the school has already accepted 10 new Archers and two Seminoles from Piper this year. The remaining 10 Archers, […]