Flight Safety

Letter of the Week:Personal Airspace I would register my drone prior to flying it above 200 feet AGL. I think it is clear from U.S. v. Causby (1946) that the FAA has no authority to regulate “the immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere” of my property, which in the Causby case is at least 83 […]

Things can go “bump” in the night. Daytime, too. Most of them either have been considered before or encountered by someone, resulting in a section of your AFM/POH labeled “Emergency Procedures.” But not everything that can happen is covered there: Pilots are constantly inventing new ways to screw up, and the aircraft themselves can present […]

A UH-60L Army helicopter crashed Monday evening while flying in Fort Hood Range in Texas, killing all four crew members on board. Fort Hood officials said emergency crews found the wreckage after an “extensive search” of the northeast portion of the range. The crew, assigned to 2nd Battalion, 291st Aviation Regiment, First Army Division West, […]

An Mi-8 helicopter crashed on a frozen river in Siberia Thursday, with at least 10 reported dead and 15 injured. Rescue crews with snowmobiles are at the site, about six miles from the Igarka airport, with two Mi-8 helicopters heading there carrying doctors and rescuers, according to The Siberia Times. Passengers reported that the crew […]

Severe icing and malfunctioning instruments led to the crash of a Cessna Citation in Kansas two years ago, the NTSB said in its probable cause report this week. The 1975 Cessna 500 Citation I was at 15,000 feet when it began a high-speed descent and crashed in a field, killing the pilot and single passenger […]

Francis Gary Powers. I suspect that name lives astride a generational divide. If you were born much after the mid-1950s, it may not resonate at all. If you’re older, it likely has a more visceral connotation and for me, that’s an unhappy stew of cold war terror, shame and embarrassment. That this should be so […]

NY Center:“Jetsetter 123, got time for a quick question?” JS123:“Sure.” NYC:“What’s the service ceiling on that bird?” JS123:“FL 510.” [A moment of silence followed.] Then someone asked:“Does that thing come with astronaut wings?” XY456:“Hey Center, what type of aircraft were you talking to?” NYC:“He’s a G6.” Some other regional jet driver then chimed in:“Man, I […]

Four British tourists and two from Australia were killed when the sightseeing helicopter they were on crashed in a crevasse on Fox Glacier on New Zealand’s south island on Saturday. The pilot of the helicopter, a New Zealander, was also killed. Authorities still aren’t sure why the Airbus Helicopters AS350, operated by Fox Glacier Heliservices, […]

As winter unveils its hand across the nation, it seems appropriate to take a look at one of the last of aviation’s “firsts,” the aerial circumnavigation of our globe via the Poles. The first flight around the world was made in 1924 by a U.S. Army team. The North Pole was overflown in 1926 by […]

The former postal carrier who landed his gyrocopter at the U.S. Capitol in April struck a bargain with federal prosecutors, pleading guilty on Friday to flying without a pilot’s certificate. Doug Hughes, 62, will be sentenced in April next year. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prisonand a $250,000 fine, although prosecutors […]