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.

Icon Sets Low-Altitude Standards

Citing a lack of FAA guidance or industry expertise in training pilots for low-altitude operations, Icon Aircraft has created guidelines for pilots flying the A5 and is preparing a low-altitude training course for pilots who want to go lower than the guidelines provide. “Our goal is to take a proactive, leadership role in the flight […]

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MH370 Search May Not Be Over

The government of Malaysia is considering a proposal from seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, a U.S. company, to resume the search for Malaysia Airlines MH370, according to news reports on Thursday. MH370 vanished in March 2014 in the southern Indian Ocean, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people aboard. Ocean Infinity has […]

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ERAU Investigates Language As Safety Issue

The impact of misunderstandings between pilots and air traffic controllers due to language differences has been underestimated as a contributing factor in accidents, researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University said this week. Elizabeth Mathews, an ERAU professor and linguistics expert, said language issues in aviation are not investigated as thoroughly as other factors. “While communication is […]

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Night Disorientation

The enthusiasm and awareness that often accompanies a new job can be an exhilarating experience. There were, no doubt, many thoughts running through this pilot’s mind as he lifted off on the next leg of his flight into the black of night. But one thought should have taken precedence—fly the airplane. Flying Freight The commercial […]

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Pilots Suspended After Dramatic Flyby

Two pilots for Air Berlin, approaching their last landing into Dusseldorf, Germany, before the carrier’s insolvency, instead flew along the runway, banked sharply, then pulled up and flew one last time around the airport. The maneuver was unauthorized by the airline, and the crew has been suspended. “We wanted to make a mark, a dignified […]

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NTSB: Poor Pilot Decisions Led To Fatal Balloon Crash

A commercial balloon pilot’s “pattern of poor decision-making” led to his balloon striking power lines and then crashing to the ground in Texas in July 2016, killing all 16 on board, the NTSB concluded in its final report, issued on Tuesday. It was the deadliest balloon crash in U.S. history. Contributing to the accident were […]

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Short Final

It was Saturday afternoon some years ago at our mid-sized, midwestern airport. Things were hopping; Air Guard jets were shooting landings on the long runway, airliners were arriving and departing, two or three aircraft were in the pattern practicing, transients were coming and going, and then there was my friend and me in a 1945 […]

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Drone Hits Charter Flight In Canada

In the first documented incident of its kind in Canada, a Skyjet Aviation flight hit a drone while on approach to Jean Lesage Airport in Quebec City on Thursday. The aircraft suffered minor damage and no one was injured. Skyjet flies King Airs and Beech 1900s for charter and medevac. Canada’s Transport Minister Marc Garneau […]

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Supersonic Flight 70 Years Old

It’s been 70 years since Chuck Yeager squeezed into the sharply tapered cockpit of the Bell X-1 rocket plane and cracked a physical and psychological barrier that busted aircraft development wide open. After dropping from a B-29, Yeager reached Mach 1.06, causing what sounded like distant thunder to the crew on the ground. Then he […]

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Why Aren’t Remanufactured Airplanes More Of A Thing?

If I were an airplane salesman, I would starve to death. Airplanes that I think have no prayer of selling fly out of the factory almost faster than they can be produced. One of these was Diamond’s DA42, which I thought was a long shot. The DA62, one of the best GA airplanes ever, in […]

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