Flight Safety

Google has just confirmed that one of its prototype solar-powered Internet UAS crashed a month ago near Albuquerque. The aircraft, which looks like a giant glider, is designed to fly above the weather at 60,000 feet and send wireless Internet connectivity from the sky. The UAS was first built by Titan Aerospace (under CEO Vern […]

Fog along the West Coast of the United States has been documented as far back as the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. Ship captains in later years learned to take it seriously; 100 years ago when the Marine Exchange in San Francisco was asked what proportion of coastal shipwrecks were the result […]

Authorities are looking for whoever pointed green lasers at five airliners Thursday night in the airspace near JFK Airport, the New York Post reported. The crews of two Delta airliners, an American Airlines jet and a Shuttle America flight reported laser light in the cockpits at 8,000 feet between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Thursday after […]

An apparent power surge at Belgium’s air traffic control facilitiesclosed some of the nation’s airspaceWednesday morning, forcing flights to divert to nearby countries, The Independent reported. A Belgocontrol spokesman told UK news agencies the cause of the power surge is yet unclear. “The surge also took out our emergency generators, which is why we had […]

A Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300, with 182 passengers and 12 crew on board, lost both engines while en route from Singapore to Shanghai on Saturday, the airline has reported. The flight encountered weather at 39,000 feet, about three and a half hours after departure and 160 miles from shore. Both Rolls Royce Trent 772 engines […]

AOPA this week opened its application period for student pilots who are looking for help with the cost of flight training. The AOPA Foundation will award almost $120,000 to help teens learn to fly, study in an accredited aviation program or attend a summer camp with an aviation or aerospace theme. Applications will be accepted […]

Data communications are now available at Newark Liberty International Airport, the FAA said last week, and later this summer the service will expand to Houston and Salt Lake City. Data Comm is already in use at Memphis International Airport, “where it’s delivering great results,” according to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. By next year, Data Comm […]

Years ago, like 1960, I was a newly hired DC-3 co-pilot for Continental Air Lines. We could fly either VFR or IFR, depending the weather situation at the time. Needless to say, we went for VFR whenever we could. [One day,] the weather wasn’t the greatest, but we thought VFR would work. Called ground for […]

Aviation groups say a proposed new bill will essentially block military veterans from using their Veterans Administration benefits to obtain aviation degrees. The new measure would cap the VA benefits at $20,235 per year for flight training, a fraction of the cost of the programs that form the basis of degree aviation programs. The provision […]

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr says random tests to determine the psychological fitness of pilots could reduce the risk to passengers from mentally ill pilots. In his first media interview since the Germanwings disaster in March, Spohr told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung such checks would likely require a loosening of strict doctor-patient confidentiality laws that now prevent […]