Flight Safety

The NTSB released its annual Most Wanted List for safety improvements on Tuesday morning, and for general aviation the number-one issue is loss-of-control accidents. “The Most Wanted List is our roadmap for 2015,” said NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart. “This list is grounded in the accident investigations by which NTSB learns safety lessons, and in […]

Indonesian divers have recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. The FDR was recovered Monday and the CVR was retrieved from underneath a wing, which had to be lifted from the seabed using airbags. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that officials were able to successfully […]

Saturday, December 6, approximately 18:00 local time, I am sitting on the ramp at KTMB waiting on an IFR clearance. Here is the conversation I hear: N1234:“Tamiami Ground, N1234 at T hangar, ready for taxi.” KTMB Ground:“N1234, I don’t see you. Taxi up to and hold short of taxiway E.” [pause] KTMB Ground:“N1234, I see […]

Letter of the Week:First Officers on the Ground I’m sure the FOs can work remotely – but why? The airline is still paying the FO’s salary. Additionally, how will the FO get stick time? The incidental expenses the airlines saves by keeping the FO home likely won’t pay the legal settlement the next time a […]

Indonesian government officials say divers have located the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from AirAsia Flight 8501 but they are trapped under wreckage and haven’t been retrieved. Searchers hoped to shift the wreckage enough to get at the recorders Monday. The recorders will likely have clues, if not outright answers, to the questions that […]

A Lancair crashed in a busy Los Angeles intersection near Van Nuys Airport Friday afternoon, killing the 47-year-old pilot, identified as Alberto Behar, a flight instructor and scientist with connections to NASA, the Los Angeles Times reported. Behar was the only one on board when it crashed about 1:14 p.m. shortly after takeoff. No other […]

Peace and quiet is something that every parent has longed for at some time or another. A lack of chatter is not so great when in the clouds and rain-being vectored for a parallel ILS approach to a major airport like Atlanta. You instantly miss the constant stream of quick-paced banter of the controller. It […]

Divers have located the empennage section of AirAsia Flight 8501, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said on Wednesday local time. It’s not yet known if the wreckage found contains the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which are normally located in the rear of the aircraft. Nor did the agency say whether acoustic equipment had […]

All 13 people aboard a New Zealand skydive plane managed to jump to safety Wednesday after the aircraft had an engine failure. There were six customers going for a tandem jump with six employees of Skydive Taupo when the engine problems developed shortly after takeoff from Taupo Airport. The six customers likely needed little prodding […]

The FAA will announce a final rule today to require all Part 121 airlines to have safety management systems. A safety management system is defined by the FAA as “the formal, top-down, organization-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls.” Most major carriers already have their own ways of […]