Flight Safety

Southwest Airlines is due to conduct its maiden flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, this week as part of its ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) certification. Partly delayed by the government shutdown, Southwest will complete its ETOPS certification flights over the next few weeks with the goal of launching California-to-Hawaii revenue flights by […]

Today’s reality quiz: You’re in an airport boarding lounge and the gate agent announces your flight has been delayed because a drone was sighted near the airport. In the improbably fantastical world I’ve created for this blog, the agent asks for a vote: Go or stay on the ground? How do you vote? How do […]

The National Transportation Safety Board released its 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements and, among the broad recommendations of eliminating distractions, reducing fatigue-related accidents and full implementation of positive train control is this: Improve the safety of Part 135 flight operations. According to the board, “Most of the organizations that conduct Part 135 […]

Many of today’s workplaces seek to create a formalized “safety culture,” an environment where employees practice behaviors that minimize accidents, look out for their co-workers and where reporting unsafe conditions is encouraged, not subject to retaliation, and frequently rewarded. It can be a great goal, but it often creates an exaggerated sense of safety where […]

I recall an instructor, who before signing students off for the commercial checkride, would explain a few things he felt were critical when exercising commercial privileges. First, commercial pilots had to be smooth. After all, paying passengers would not be impressed if we could not fly the airplane well. Second, commercial pilots had to be […]

Five people were killed and three injured in the crash of a Cessna 414A in a neighborhood in Yorba Linda, California, east of Los Angeles. Early reports and video from the scene show aircraft parts on a street in front of two houses on fire. Fire officials confirmed the casualties and said only the pilot […]

A New York Times investigation of the Oct. 29, 2018, Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crash suggests marketing considerations were at least partly behind Boeing’s and the FAA’s joint decision to not specifically train pilots in the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) that may have played a role in the crash. The Times story quotes […]

As I’ve stated before, airshow flying is risky. So is practicing to fly in an airshow. Thankfully, not all years include the death of a civilian or military pilot practicing for or flying in a show. But sadly, 2018 was not a good year at all, resulting in the deaths of civilian and military performers, […]

Three people were killed in the crash of a Bell 407 medical helicopter in Vinton County, Ohio, approximately 75 miles southeast of Columbus, on Tuesday. The helicopter, which was operated Survival Flight Inc., departed from Mount Carmel Grove City hospital and was en route to pick up up a patient from Holzer Meigs hospital in […]

A few days ago, departing Minot North Dakota for Duluth in a Skylane, I asked ATC if the NOTAM for military training at Duluth had the airport closed, or whether it was open to GA traffic. He asked me to stand by for a minute, and then said, “It’s closed at the moment, but will […]