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.
The Air Force on Friday released its investigation (PDF) of a midair collision of two F-16s in Kansas last fall, citing a student pilot’s loss of visual contact and an instructor’s misperception of a turning maneuver. The two F-16Cs, from the Tulsa Air National Guard Base, were flying a training exercise with a third fighter […]
Probably the most difficult task on the Instrument Rating (IR) practical test is Area VII, Task D: Approach with Loss of Primary Flight Instrument Indicators. But why is the FAA so concerned about this? In their own words from the IR Practical Test Standards (PTS): “The FAA is concerned about numerous fatal aircraft accidents involving […]
Letter of the Week:Drones No Danger I’m a commercial pilot and small drone operator and want to thank you for not joining the unfounded media hysteria over small UAV operation in the U.S. Regarding the “numerous” drone sightings reported by pilots as tabulated by the FAA, I’ve examined them, and the most frequently used words […]
When I was reading over the draft small UAS regs and analysis that leaked out of the FAA over the weekend, I couldn’t help thinking … man, this feels like a breech birth assisted with a crowbar. For one thing, the timing caught the FAA off guard. Thanks to the wonders of the web, the […]
The FAA grounded more than 300 Enstrom helicopters this week, requiring inspections for cracks such as one that might have caused a fatal crash last month in Colorado. The agency’s emergency Airworthiness Directive requires a magnetic particle inspection to detect cracks in the spindle of the main rotor for those with at least 5,000 hours […]
More than half of TransAsia’s ATR pilots are grounded as the airline continues to test their proficiency. Ten of 49 pilots so far are grounded after failing the oral exams TransAsia ordered after the Feb. 4 crash of one of its ATR-72s in Taipei; another 19 are suspended until they take the test, Reuters reported […]
The former Korean Air executive who offloaded a flight attendant at JFK in December over a bag of nuts is appealing the one-year prison sentence handed down Thursday, the Korea Times reportedFriday.A district court judge in Seoul ruled that Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, was guilty of acts of violence […]
Beginning in 2017 any aircraft, GA included, with ADS-B Out transmitting at 1090 MHz will be automatically tracked and the precise location of its last transmission anywhere on earth recorded. At last week’s ICAO High Level Safety Conference, Aireon LLC, which is launching the first space-based global air surveillance system, announced that the headquarters for […]
When a LAN Chile DC-3 went missing in the Andes in April 1961 with 24 people on board, rescuers found the tail section, but then abandoned the recovery effort. It was clear there were no survivors, and searching on the steep, remote, glacier-topped mountainside was dangerous. This week, a nine-member expedition team announced that it […]
Heard this exchange on the radio a few (many) years ago. Cessna 123:“Center, Cessna 123 with you at angels eight five.” ATC:“Cessna 123, traffic 2 o’clock, four miles, eastbound. Say altitude.” Cessna 123:“No joy. Angels eight five. Looking.” ATC:“Cessna 123, say altitude.” Cessna 123:“Angels eight five.” ATC:“Cessna 123, we’re not making a war movie here. […]
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