Flight Safety

The FBI officially closed the book last year on the unsolved case of a 1971 hijacking by the man known as D.B. Cooper, but now a team of amateur investigators say they have a new lead in the case. The amateurs, who call themselves Citizen Sleuths, were allowed access to the FBI’s files and evidence. […]

After nearly three years of work searching the ocean floor with deep-sea submersibles for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 that went missing with 239 people on board in March 2014, officials on Tuesday said they are suspending the effort. “Today the last search vessel has left the underwater search area,” said a joint […]

A Boeing 747-400 cargo plane en route from Hong Kong to Istanbul crashed early Monday morning, about 7:30 local time, while trying to make a scheduled stop in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The flight crew of four and about 38 people on the ground were killed in the crash and its aftermath. At least […]

While we were preparing to shut down at a tie down spot at Henderson Airport, Las Vegas, ground control was directing a taxiing Piper. Ground: “Cherokee Nxxxx, say your destination.” Cherokee:“Uhh, we’re not sure where we’re going. We’re just following the van in front of us (the “follow-me” van). Ground (chuckling):“I mean when you depart […]

Last week, the FAA rolled out the final rule for the long-awaited Third-Class medical exemption. We heard plenty of comments pro and con and in today’s issue, we’re publishing a detailed survey to find out what pilots really think. The survey will take about five minutes to complete and in addition to multiple choice questions, […]

Flying a seaplane off of the water is well up there on the list of the most purely fun things to do in aviation. When you take one of the most enjoyable of human endeavors—flying—and combine it with zipping across the water, you get a rush that’s tough to beat when engaged in doing anything […]

The FAA’s drone registry appears to have helped authorities in Seattle identify the owner of an aircraft that clipped the iconic Space Needle on New Year’s Eve. The drone had its camera rolling as it approached the 605-foot tower as workers prepared for a New Year’s light display on the very top of the structure. […]

A suite of satellites that launched on Saturday are the first of 66 that will expand real-time global coverage for tracking airplanes in flight. Ten IridiumNext satellites, which weigh about 1,900 pounds each, were successfully deployed into low-Earth orbit, about 485 miles above the surface. The satellites will be the first to launch for Aireon’s […]

“There were no twists or turns” in the new medical rule issued by the FAA this week, EAA Chairman Jack Pelton told AVweb this week, since the new rule is basically a cut-and-paste from the language that was mandated last year by Congress. “I’d like to tell everyone, just relax,” he added. It will take […]

EAA Chairman Jack Pelton and his staff, along with advocates from AOPA and other general aviation groups, were prominent players in getting the new FAA medical rule pushed through. AVweb’s Mary Grady finds out more about how the new rule will be implemented and how it will affect CFIs, LSA pilots and others in the […]