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.

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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Coming Back

Every so often I’ll get a casual inquiry from a “usta” pilot, someone who has a pilot’s license but hasn’t flown for a long time. Quite often, they’ll have an instrument rating and several hundreds, or even thousands, of hours of professed time. The conversation will start with “I used to fly, quite a bit. […]

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Dillingham Remains Closed After Skydive Crash

Dillingham Airport on Oahu’s north shore remains closed following the crash of a King Air 65-A90 that killed 11 people on Friday. NTSB investigators have arrived and have begun investigating the wreck site, the agency said Monday. “This is the deadliest accident involving a civil airplane in the United States since 2011. We’re here to […]

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General Aviation Accident Bulletin

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 accident, […]

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Administrative Error Costs Airline $1 Million

An apparent administrative error may have cost Brussels Air $1 million after a flight from Brussels to Washington, D.C., was turned around over the Atlantic. According to various forum sources (but not confirmed by the airline) the A330 involved was a recent acquisition and a last-minute replacement for the flight. As the aircraft approached Canadian […]

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Two Tragic Accidents And We’re Arguing About Sim Time?

When the last human pilot exits the cockpit and the cockpit no longer even has a door for a human, we’ll still be arguing about the benefits of aircraft automation. For the time being, this much is true: There is general agreement that widespread automation is eroding pilot physical skills, if not judgment acuity along […]

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