Flight Safety

An Indonesian air force C-130 transport plane that crashed into a residential neighborhood in Medan, Indonesia, during departure on Tuesday had one failed propeller as the pilot attempted to return to the airport, authorities said in a CNN report Thursday. There were 122 people on board,including military personnel and their families, with no survivors confirmed. […]

Back in the blissfully simple days of 1986, before cable news became the 24-hour din it is today, I recall watching some coverage of Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landing the Voyager back at Edwards Air Force base, where they had begun their round-the-world flight nine days earlier. Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff had been […]

It’s been over a decade since we last looked at aviation life rafts. While there have been noteworthy changes in the industry, numerous evolutionary improvements and some new offerings, it’s also a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. Winslow still, in our opinion, offers the best rafts—you pay a […]

The FAA plans to eliminate two of the less frequently used resources provided to pilots in the coming months – Airport Advisories and World Aeronautical Charts. In two separate moves, the agency cited declining usage of both due to the digital information available to pilots. There’s a public comment period on Airport Advisories, but the […]

The FAA says the operator of a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft that crashed in Afghanistan in April 2013, killing all seven on board, failed to comply with FARs when loading heavy military vehicles onto the plane. National Air Cargo Group, based in Orlando, Florida, didn’t follow the 747 flight manual, resulting in cargo that was […]

A Beechcraft A36 Bonanza crashed into a house in Plainville, Massachusetts, about 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, killing two adults and a child on board the airplane. The four residents of the house, a couple and two children, escaped unharmed, but their two-story Colonial home in a suburb about 30 miles from Boston was destroyed by […]

Flying from Boeing Field in Seattle to the San Juan Islands, I was monitoring the departure frequency when I heard a pilot report that he’d seen an eagle near the inbound course to 12 right at BFI. An unknown pilot asked:“What was he squawking?” Ed Griswold (Griz)

A SpaceX rocket failed Sunday as it went through Mach 1 when an oxygen tank in the vehicle’s upper stage overpressurized. The rocket, carrying two tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station, exploded and shattered into thousands of pieces about two and a half minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral. It was […]

Fire officials in California are imploring amateur UAS operators to steer well clear of wildfire areas after three air tankers had to abort drops on a fire east of Los Angeles. Officials said a fixed-wing UAS with a four-foot wingspan was spotted over the Lake Fire in the San Bernardino mountains and forced a DC-10 […]

The pilot and eight tourists aboard a floatplane on a sightseeing flight in southeast Alaska died when the aircraft crashed into rugged terrain Thursday, CNN reported.The DeHavilland DHC-3T Otter was carrying cruise ship passengers to view theMisty Fjords National Monument, accessible only by floatplanes or boats, according to CNN. The plane crashedabout 25 miles northeast […]