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 FAA is investigating whether the pilot of a medevac helicopter fell asleep at the controls while taking a patient to the hospital. In a statement to a Boston television station, the agency confirmed it was looking into an incident June 24 involving the Boston MedFlight flight from Martha’s Vineyard to a Boston hospital. Boston […]
The NTSB has issued a Safety Alert asking jet fuel providers to take measures to prevent fuel contamination by diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). The board warned that the addition of DEF to jet fuel can cause a chemical reaction that forms crystalline deposits in the fuel system, increasing the risk of engine failure due to […]
The turn needle was probably the earliest attitude reference for instrument flying. It dates back about a hundred years and it provides an indirect indication of bank, which made it possible for pilots to control an airplane by reference to “needle, ball and airspeed.” We’ve come a long way since then. The instrument platform I […]
When I first started training to fly multi-engine airplanes, it was solemnly explained to me that there were a few things the CFI and weren’t going to do. Yes, we were going to do stalls, but only from 5000 feet AGL or more. They all would be straight-ahead and power-off to the pre-stall buffet, followed […]
Boeing is fundamentally redesigning the software architecture of the 737 MAX flight control system to take data from both of the system’s computers and to compare the data from the sensors feeding them. The existing system uses data from only one flight control computer and the second serves as a backup. In the new setup, […]
A United Airlines captain and his first officer are in jail in Scotland awaiting a court appearance Tuesday on charges they planned to fly a Boeing 757 full of passengers to Newark while impaired. The flight deck crew, aged 61 and 45, were intercepted in the airport and prevented from boarding for the scheduled 9 […]
Canadian authorities appear to have a well-documented and recorded case of hypoxia in their investigation of the stall/spin fatal accident involving a Piper Navajo a year ago. On Aug. 1, 2018, an Aries Aviation PA-31, a well-maintained aircraft regularly flown by experienced pilots, inexplicably spun into a 10,000-foot mountain peak while on initial descent to […]
A Senate Appropriations Subcommittee questioned FAA officials about the agency’s oversight of the certification of the Boeing 737 MAX and its responses to the fatal crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 in October 2018 and Ethiopians Airlines Flight 302 last March during a hearing on Wednesday. Citing articles recently published by The New York Times […]
The U.S. Navy has confirmed that the pilot of an F/A-18E Super Hornet was killed when the aircraft crashed in California’s Death Valley National Park at approximately 9:50 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Seven park visitors reportedly sustained minor injuries as a result of the accident. The pilot has been identified as Lt. Charles Z. […]
Becoming disoriented in flight is one of the most terrifying experiences pilots can have. In extreme cases, it leads to loss of control, controlled flight into terrain or even an inflight breakup. Less extreme experiences lead to pilot deviation or, more optimally and after the afflicted pilot is safely back on the ground, the expense […]
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