Flight Safety

First officer Andreas Lubitz, who was at the controls of the Germanwings A320 that crashed last week, had told his employers at Lufthansa in 2009 that he had suffered from severe depression, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Lufthansa officials said they had searched their records and found an email from Lubitz to its flight-training […]

As investigators probe into the history of first officer Andreas Lubitz, searching for insights into why he apparently crashed a Germanwings A320 into a mountain last week, workers at the crash site are still recovering debris and human remains, and searching for the flight data recorder. They also are building a road into the remote […]

Are we asking the right questions with respect to the Germanwings tragedy? How do you teach a door to determine friend or foe? That is a tough one. Here is one that is not so tough; how do you teach an airplane not to fly into the ground? From the technical standpoint, that is easy. […]

I was on Ground Control at KTUS Sunday, March 8, as the National Guard F-16s were out doing their usual practice. The tower called out to one of them:“Looks like you have an empty seat there.” The pilot in the F-16 radioed back:“Wishful thinking.” Then a guy taking off in a Cessna 182 radioed in:“We […]

Letter of the Week:Altimeter Under Pressure I am a single-engine aircraft owner and private pilot that only flies VFR. So the following question is based on my 2,000 hours of flying over the past 33 years. My Grumman Cheetah is equipped with the standard altimeter, and my airplane has a Mode C transponder. I also […]

The Air Canada A320 that crash landed at Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport early Sunday touched down about 1,000 feet before the runway threshold and hit an antenna array before tearing off the gear and sliding to a stop about 1,000 feet down the runway, according to crash investigators. Mike Cunningham, of the Transportation Safety Board, […]

A 62-year-old Swiss adventurer who was attempting to fly around the world in an LSA-sized aircraft died Saturday in an accident in Ecuador. Eric Guilloud’s Aerospool WT9 Dynamic aircraft hit a volcano shortly after takeoff from Latacunga airport, south of Quito. Guilloud was trying to fly around the world in a series of sidetracking flights […]

In the wake of last week’s troubling indications that a trained First Officer intentionally crashed an Airbus A320 in the French Alps, I couldn’t help but wonder if passengers boarding airliners are suddenly giving the crews the fisheye. Truthfully, I can’t really say I wouldn’t, but I’m no more worried about a repeat of Germanwings […]

Most casual discussions of hand-propping begin and end with the admonition “Don’t.” That’s not bad advice, except when there’s no other way to start the engine. In fact, hand-propping is a time-honored practice, dating to the beginning of heavier-than-air flight. That it’s still employed says as much about the legacy of aviation as it does […]