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.
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 […]
Search crews found the body of the Iraqi pilot whose F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed Wednesday night near Douglas, Arizona,Agence France Presse reported. Identified asBrig. Gen. Rafid Mohammed Sadiq, the pilot was on anight training mission when the jet crashed about 8 p.m. The flight originated from the162nd Wing of the Air National Guard in Tucson, […]
Flight instructors often note to the student, early in the training cycle, that there are back-up systems in case the primary equipment fails. However, with respect to the single engine purring away on the nose of the aircraft they will often add, “Don’t worry, they hardly ever fail, and if it does, the airplane will […]
Hollywood film composer and pilot James Horner died Monday when his Tucano turboprop crashed in a forest in southern California. An Associated Press report, confirming Horner was the solo pilot and owner of the aircraft, said the Tucano crashed and burned in the Los Padres National Forest, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.The FAA […]
During my long and colorless career as a flight instructor, I’ve been asked a few times to pencil whip a flight review. This I have never done and still would not do, although I am surprised to admit my reasons for not doing so have changed. I never believed that FAR 61.56’s requirement for a […]
The pilot of a Cessna 185 on floats escaped injury after his aircraft collided with a Cessna 172 near the northern Alberta city of Fort McMurray on Sunday but his flight home will be one to remember. Both occupants of the 172, a training airplane from a Fort McMurray flight school, died in the resulting […]
The FAA last week published a notice of proposed rulemaking that would increase to 20 hours the simulator time allowed for the instrument rating, following an earlier attempt using a straight-to-final rule process that was derailed when two commenters objected to the change. The new proposal states that the FAA aims to “relieve burdens on […]
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