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.
Carbon monoxide poisoning likely played a key role in the fatal accident of a 1984 Piper Malibu carrying soccer star Emiliano Sala, according to a special bulletin issued by the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) on Wednesday. As previously reported by AVweb, the aircraft went down in the English Channel 22 NM northwest of […]
Stephen Dickson was sworn in by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao as the FAA’s 18th administrator on Monday. As leader of the FAA, which is responsible for a system operating more than 50,000 flights a day, Dickson will oversee the agency’s 47,000 employees and $16.4 billion-dollar budget. He is taking over from Acting Administrator Dan […]
One of the oldest jokes in aviation holds that the big fan is there to cool the cockpit: Whenever it stops unexpectedly, the pilot starts to sweat. Every aviator who’s had that experience can probably confirm a significant uptick in pulse and respiration. In the best case, that’s accompanied by a corresponding intensification of focus, […]
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 […]
Amazon has formally applied to begin limited drone delivery of packages in the U.S. and comments are being accepted until Aug. 28. Amazon wants to use drones to deliver packages weighing less than five pounds directly to customers within 30 minutes of its distribution center. The aircraft would fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), […]
A Minnesota pilot who pulled the parachute on his Cirrus SR22 over a wilderness area of Quebec says he hopes his well-documented account of his experience can help others if they find themselves in similar straits. Matt Letinen, the CEO of a Minnesota mining company, was flying back from a mine his company operates in […]
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 […]
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