Flight Safety

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.

Textron Service Letter Affects Cardinals, Centurions

Some Cessna 177 and 210 owners will need an immediate inspection of the spar that holds their wings on after Textron reported potential corrosion and subsequent cracking problems on some aircraft. The company issued a mandatory service letter requiring inspection and repair of the carry-thru spar on the aircraft. The spar is a main structural […]

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Wheels Ground Off On United A319

A United A319 crew had their hands full on Saturday after the brakes on the left main gear apparently locked up either as they were taking off from La Guardia or shortly after. According to the Aviation Herals, they diverted immediately to Newark instead of taking the 128 passengers and three cabin crew to Houston. […]

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10 Dead In Texas King Air Crash (Updated)

Local officials in Addison, Texas, have confirmed that all 10 people aboard died in the crash of a King Air 350 Sunday morning. The aircraft was taking off from the airport near Dallas when it struck a hangar and caught fire. There were no people in the hangar but at least one business jet could […]

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Video: Fighter Jettisons Bombs, Tanks After Bird Strike

A massive explosion rocked an Indian air force base on Friday and it was Indian ordnance that triggered the blast. An IAF Jaguar fighter took off from Ambala AFS (Haryana) and a few hundred feet off the runway it went through a flock of birds. One of the two engines flamed out and that’s when […]

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Boeing Outsourced Coding For $9 An Hour

Bloomberg is reporting that Boeing outsourced coding of software on the Boeing 737 MAX to engineers who were paid as little as $9 an hour. The company and some of its suppliers laid off their own engineers in favor of subcontracting coding work to offshore companies in a cost-saving move that may not have saved […]

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What’s To Be Done About Skydiving Crashes?

Robert Crandall, the long-time CEO of American Airlines, once said the industry is always in the grip of its dumbest competitor. A corollary for GA—if there is one—is that the perception of safety is always set by the latest horrific accident. And it occurred in Hawaii last Friday when a King Air carrying 10 skydivers […]

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FAA Reviewing DPE Regulations

The FAA has given the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) the task of reviewing all policies and regulations related to designated pilot examiners (DPEs), according to a notice (PDF) issued by the agency last week. The action comes in response to Section 319 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, which calls for a full […]

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FAA Finds Further MAX Risk (Updated)

The FAA has recently discovered another potential risk on the grounded 737 MAX that it is requiring Boeing to mitigate before the aircraft can be returned to service, according to a statement by the agency on Wednesday. The problem reportedly involves the speed at which a computer chip is processing data, causing electric trim switches […]

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NASA Conducts RJ Crashworthiness Test

NASA and the FAA dropped a 33,000-pound Fokker F28 regional jet from more than 150 feet in the air as part of a crashworthiness test last week. Along for the ride were 24 crash dummies, designed to mimic a range of individuals from a 3-year-old child to a 273-pound adult. In addition to helping the […]

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Icon A5 Flips On Water Landing

Both pilot and passenger suffered minor injuries after their Icon A5 flipped on landing at Okanagan Lake, West Kelowna, British Columbia. Police reports and post-crash video suggest that the Icon’s gear was extended for the water landing, likely to be the cause of the flip-over. According to local reports, Caeli Turner with British Columbia Emergency […]

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