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 FAA contractor who started a fire at the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center during a suicide attempt last fall will plead guilty to federal charges in June. In court on Thursday, Brian Howard’s attorney entered a not guilty plea as a formality that buys time to process a deal with prosecutors, the Chicago […]
During the flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona immediately prior to the fatal crash on March 24, Germanwings first officer Andreas Lubitz repeatedly reset the A320’s altitude to 100 feet while alone in the cockpit, according to a preliminary report (PDF) released Wednesday by the French BEA safety board. Lubitz didn’t activate a descent, but the […]
As part of its investigation into several events when airplanes landed at the wrong airports, the NTSB told the FAA this week it should amend its ATC procedures. “Controllers [should] withhold landing clearance until the aircraft has passed all other airports that may be confused with the destination airport,” the NTSB said. Also, software that […]
Last Friday morning, I was en route to Sun ‘n Fun. The weather at KLAL prevented canceling IFR and joining the Lake Parker VFR arrival. As I (along with several other aircraft) was issued a holding clearance at LAL VOR to wait my turn for the ILS runway 9 approach, I was reminded just how […]
Heading into a world of electric aircraft, we need to know on which systems we can rely and to what extent. Michael Riccifrom LaunchPoint Technologies spoke with AVweb at the Electric Aircraft Symposium about parallel redundancy, failure mitigation, and how fly-by-wire has set the standard forreliability in future designs. Duration: 6:46 File Size: 6.1 MB […]
With a production site for its E-Fan 2.0 electric trainer selected in France, Airbus is bullish enough on e-flight to project a four-place electric hybrid before 2020. At the Electric Aircraft Symposium in Santa Rosa, California, on Friday, the company’s head of development and strategy, Ken McKenzie, said Airbus isn’t exactly going after Cirrus and […]
An increasing amount of instrument flying is done using technologically advanced airplanes and sophisticated avionics. Correct use of automation improves safety immensely by giving pilots the time to monitor systems, gather information, and plan ahead. But researchers have found that as a group we do not use automation effectively. Automation presents additional challenges. Over reliance […]
The 87-year-old pilot who skipped a gear-up Piper Aerostar off a runway in Florida earlier this month told AVweb he didn’t forget to drop the gear. In fact, Chris Gaklis said in an interview he retracted the gear a few seconds before the aircraft was caught on video clattering down the short strip at Aero […]
An experienced flight nurse fell from a medical helicopter during a rescue mission in Austin, Texas, Monday night and was killed, officials have reported. The Star Flight EC-145 was operating at about 9:45 p.m. and the crew was working to hoist aboard a woman who had fallen from a cliff in a hiking area and […]
In the late ’70, I was flying up the East Coast in the early morning, in the low stratus along the Atlantic beaches. Our flight, an Allegheny Commuter Twin Otter en route to Atlantic City’s Bader Airport, was operating IFR with Atlantic City approach. Essentially, we were on top at 2,000 with high cirrus above. […]
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