Flight Safety

It was a foggy mid-week morning when I stopped into the pilot’s lounge at the virtual airport. I was doing some research for an article in our sister publication Aviation Consumer and I needed Wi-Fi access, so I figured I’d tap into the flight school’s system. Karver, recently instrument rated and Kary, a long-time pilot […]

We’ve all told apocryphal stories of pilots falling so far behind the airplane that they were only holding on by the static wicks. Amusing as these tales may be, falling behind is a major cause of accidents and incidents. There are two reasons for finding yourself in this unenviable situation: Either the airplane is going […]

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 Minnesota pilot was uninjured and his Cub appeared virtually undamaged after it became entangled in power lines south of Shakopee, Minn., on Saturday afternoon. “Initial investigation indicated that the plane, a single-engine prop Piper Cub, was traveling south, hit a cluster of power lines and became suspended … upside-down,” the local sheriff’s office reported in a news release. Pilot […]

At least 25 people, including some on the ground, were killed when a Busy Bee Dornier 228 crashed into a neighborhood at the end of the runway at Goma Airport in the Congo on Saturday. The aircraft may have been trying to return to the airport because of engine problems when it crashed. At least […]

Two weeks after an international committee declared Boeing’s changes to the Boeing 737 MAX software “safe,” a Canadian official has suggested the only way he and his colleagues can “sleep at night” is if the problematic Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) is scrapped. Jim Marko, a 30-year veteran at Transport Canada and its engineering manager […]

The FAA is asking for public comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment (Draft EA) for its Las Vegas Metroplex Project. The project is designed to “optimize” air traffic routes in Southern Nevada including developing new or replacement arrival and departure procedures for McCarran International Airport (LAS), Henderson Executive Airport (HND) and North Las Vegas Airport […]

Flight planning invariably includes choosing an expected altitude for the trip and varying it as necessary for anticipated terrain encounters and ATC requirements. The question at the outset will often be, shall I go as high as practical, or as low as I can? Many factors enter into the decision, with each trip having du […]

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) and ten other aviation organizations have come out in opposition of a recently introduced bill aimed at increasing FAA oversight of repair stations located outside of the United States. The Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act (H.R. 5119) was introduced by U.S. House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman […]

Reinforced fan cowls for Boeing 737 Next Generation airliners are among the NTSB’s recommendations after analyzing the April 2018 incident with a Southwest Airlines flight that resulted in one passenger fatality. The left engine on this 737-700 failed 30 minutes after the flight left New York’s LaGuardia Airport, with fragments from the first-stage fan tearing […]