Flight Safety

A glider pilot suffered only minor injuries after high winds reportedly tore the wings off his aircraft and he parachuted to safety on the roof of a parkade in Reno, Nevada, on Sunday. The unidentified pilot launched from soaring mecca Minden, about 40 miles south of Reno, on Sunday afternoon and was on his way […]

While lightning strikes on airliners aren’t that rare, videos of them don’t come up that often. University of Washington student Owen Craft was therefore understandably excited when he got footage of two airliners being hit while on approach to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last week. “I was stunned for a second because I couldn’t believe what […]

Long ago, an instructor explained to me that knowing the various options for using the airplane, the different ways to make it do what’s needed, and the savvy to use those different models as appropriate; differentiated aviating from rote piloting. In the case of using climb abilities to your benefit, the best preparation begins with […]

The NTSB continues its probe into the Delta MD-88 that veered off a runway at LaGuardia Airport on March 5, issuing a third report Thursday. Investigators saidthey will examine the snow-clearing procedures at LaGuardia as well as snow-clearing operations on the day of the accident.In its new report, the NTSB found that Runway 13, where […]

Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot found to have crashed a Germanwings A320 into the French Alps on March 24, not only set the Airbus’ autopilot to descend into the ground, but changed the settings several times to increase the aircraft’s speed, French investigators stated Friday in a BBC report. The findings came after the retrieval of […]

14 CFR 91.123 says, “When a pilot is uncertain of an ATC clearance, that pilot shall immediately request clarification from ATC.” Complying with the reg seems easy enough, but under pressure of time, heavy weather and busy controllers we are tempted to assume that ATC knows its intentions and to accept a clearance as given. […]

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 […]