Flight Safety

A French helicopter pilot got the job done in a tight rescue operation in a back country ski area of the Alps on Jan. 2. A skier was climbing up the mountain in the Pass of Anterne in Passy, France, when he fell and hurt himself. His companions called for a rescue and got out […]

The discovery of a plane wreck at the bottom of the English Channel will likely solve a 50-year-old mystery that some believe the RAF and USAF might rather remain below the surface if local lore is correct. Few details have ever been released about the crash of a USAF C-130 that was stolen by a […]

ASTM’s National Center for Aerospace and Transportation Technologies (NCATT) Aircraft Electronics Technician (AET) certification can now qualify as formal training for issuance of a repairman certificate, according to a recent FAA letter. The letter (PDF) was sent in response to an October 2018 petition by the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA). To meet the educational requirement […]

Flights at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) were temporarily suspended due to a drone sighting on Tuesday evening. The closure occurred just three weeks after Gatwick Airport (LGW), which is located about 30 miles south of London, was shut down for approximately 36 hours due to reports of drone activity over the airport. Flights at Heathrow, […]

A year and a half ago, it dawned on me that what I most enjoyed about my previous career as a science communications consultant was when I got to commute to visit clients in my faithful Cessna 180. With some 1500 hours in my logbook—accumulated primarily on those business trips—I sent out my rsum to […]

AVweb’sGeneral Aviation Accident Bulletinis taken from the pages of our sister publication,Aviation Safetymagazine, and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s website atwww.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after […]

Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Ore., is the new chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and he’s made it clear his emphasis will be on the latter rather than the former. DeFazio says he intends to have a comprehensive infrastructure bill before Congress in six months and that likely means aviation issues will be […]

The government shutdown has reached beyond the national airspace system and postponed at least one space launch. According to spacenews.com, Exos Aerospace intended to launch its SARGE suborbital rocket from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Saturday but pushed it back to Feb. 9 in hopes FAA staff will be back at work and able […]

In case there were any doubts that the pilot shortage is real, the South China Morning Post is reporting that China’s People’s Liberation Army has joined the rest of the aviation world and launched a pilot recruitment drive. The army has created a flashy promotional video aimed at 17- to 20-year-olds and 2019 high school […]

As the government shutdown grinds on with no end in sight, calls from the aviation industry to restore funding are getting more strident and the system is starting to show some strain. Possibly the biggest concern is the furloughing of 3,000 “safety specialists,” who support air traffic control functions. Another concern is that virtually all […]