Flight Safety

I hate it when someone peers into my eyes and, within a nanosecond to two, sees all the character flaws within. “You’re a rule breaker, aren’t you?” The query was from our team coach, Sally, and on the strength of one minor little transgression, she had nailed me with unnerving accuracy. When we go to […]

Angered by noise from Pilatus PC-12s operated by Surf Air, residents of San Mateo county have taken a new tack in their fight to shut down the operation. A proposed curfew ordinance, drafted by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, would limit any operator to one takeoff and one landing of a “noisy airplane” […]

We often wonder why there are so many rules governing everyday life but some British Airways ramp attendants have provided an example. The airline had to remind workers at London Heathrow to please not urinate in the cargo holds of its aircraft rather than hike back into the building to a washroom. “Basically the guys […]

Several hundred pieces of software written by NASA engineers for air and spacecraft design, business optimization, systems interaction and biomedical applications have been released by the agency for free public use. The software is being made available through the NASA Technology Transfer Program (motto, “Bringing NASA Technology Down to Earth”). The available codes are listed […]

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the EU equivalent of the US FAA, published today long-awaited rules broadening the permitted use of single-engine turbine (SET) aircraft in commercial operations. Previously, commercial operators, both charter and cargo, were not permitted to operate any single-engine aircraft at night or in instrument meteorological conditions. Today’s rule lifts those […]

There I was, sliding down from my cruising altitude toward my VFR destination, still 30 or so miles out. It had been a smooth ride, and Otto was following a heading and descending at the selected 400 fpm. I had let the power come up during the descent, along with airspeed. The big Continental in […]

A pilot died when his Sonex airplane crashed into the roof of a condo complex near Lawrence Municipal Airport in Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon. The pilot, identified by local media as Alan Lavender, 73, a sport pilot from nearby Newburyport, had taken off from the airport and was planning to stay in the pattern to […]

The pilot of a drone that hit a building, then fell into a crowd watching a parade and hit a 25-year-old woman, knocking her unconscious, has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by a Seattle municipal court. Paul Skinner, 38, of Washington, who owns an aerial photography company, was convicted of reckless endangerment, which […]

Three people are dead and at least two were injured in a crash that also destroyed two houses in Riverside, California, on Monday. A Cessna 310 took off from Riverside Municipal Airport around 5 p.m. headed for San Jose and crashed about a half mile from the airport. The aircraft reportedly had five occupants, a […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine 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 web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final […]