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.

Airshow Plane Comes Apart, Pilot Killed

An airshow pilot was killed during practice for the New York Air Show on Friday after the tail separated from the aircraft. The aircraft, a Giles 202 owned by airshow performer Andrew Wright, crashed in a wooded area. Reports did not immediately confirm the pilot was Wright, who has flown the Giles since 2001, according […]

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AOPA Releases Annual Nall Report, Safety Video

AOPA’s Air Safety Institute released its 24th annual Joseph T. Nall Report (PDF) this week, including for the first time a review of helicopter accident causes. Overall, accident rates for non-commercial fixed-wing aircraft climbed from 6.30 per 100,000 hours in 2010 to 6.54 in 2012 due to flight time decreasing while accident counts remained level […]

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Forget ELTs, Got Seatbelts?

I don’t know if you bothered to click on the video linkfor yesterday’s coverage of NASA’s crash work on ELT performance. It’s worth watching. But the part I’m most interested in occurs at 1:47. I’ve taken the liberty of re-editing the video and placing it in a viewer here. Note how ineffective the single shoulder […]

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Gettin’ Older

Concerns about pilot aging are just as important for the younger pilot as for the more silver-haired among us. The US population is getting greyer, and it’s plain to see when looking around any airport, so too is the average pilot. This aging brings numerous challenges and a few rewards that should be important to […]

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NASA Completes ELT Crash Tests

NASA’s orchestrated crash of a Cessna 172 on Wednesday, the last in a series of impact tests, completed the data-gathering phase of research aimed at improving the performance of ELTs. The agency’s Search and Rescue Mission Office completed the last of the three drops from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia to simulate severe but […]

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Vintage Jet Aerobatics Restricted In U.K.

Vintage jets have been banned from performing aerobatics over land and all Hawker Hunter fighters have been temporarily grounded in the U.K. following Saturday’s crash of a Hunter at the Shoreham Air Show in southern England. The Civil Aviation Authority announced Monday that “high energy” aerobatics will be outlawed for jet warbirds at most airshows […]

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NTSB Says ATC Directed Pilot In Distress To Closed Airport

A controller who was trying to help a Bonanza pilot in distress directed him to a runway that no longer exists, according to an NTSB preliminary report posted this week. According to the report, the pilot of the Beech C35 Bonanza had taken off from Westhampton Beach, New York, on Sunday, August 16, on an […]

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Long Island Accident: The FAA Has Some Explaining To Do

The FAA has some serious explaining to do following a tragic accident in Long Island last weekend that killed one person and injured another. As we reported, a Bonanza pilot had engine trouble and the controller vectored him toward a runway at the former Grumman Bethpage airport. Unfortunately, that airport has been closed for some […]

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New Grass Strip Opens In Michigan

After several years of work by the Recreational Aviation Foundation, an old turf runway has been restored and reopened on North Fox Island, in Lake Michigan. The 3,000-foot runway has displaced thresholds on both ends, and is surrounded by trees up to about 60 feet high. The island, which comprises about 820 acres, is owned […]

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Pilot Dies After Swiss Airshow Collision

A midair collision at an airshow in Switzerland Sunday killed one of the pilots involved. According to initial news reports two members of the three-ship Formation Grasshoppers team touched during a maneuver and both aircraft crashed. One pilot was reportedly able to parachute from his crippled aircraft. The Grasshoppers fly Ikarus C42 aircraft and do […]

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