Flight Safety

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.

FAA’s Huerta on Center Sabotage: Bland Reassurances

After watching FAA administrator Michael Huerta interviewed on network news last night, I felt so much better. For all the administrators I’ve covered in some way, and that’s about nine, he is absolutely the most skilled at giving polished, content-free answers and he doles these out not just to us ink-stained wretches in the GA […]

Read More »

FAA Will Review ATC Security Plans

Following a fire that knocked out ATC equipment at a facility in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said on Monday the agency will conduct a 30-day review of its contingency plans and security protocols to be sure they address system efficiency as well as safety. “I do understand the traveling public’s frustrations,” […]

Read More »

Short Final

I was arriving in the Washington, D.C., area with a destination of Manassas Regional in Virginia. There was a mid-morning thunderstorm that was causing aircraft, including Air Force One, to request deviations when I heard the following. After being denied a 20-degree deviation to the right to avoid weather and given an alternative of 30 […]

Read More »

FAA, Controllers Coping With Chicago Outage

Capacity is steadily increasing at airports affected by the sabotage of critical communications equipment at Chicago Center on Friday. As of late Sunday (PDF), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said 72 flights per hour were getting into O’Hare International Airport and departure delays of 15 minutes in the afternoon were expected to increase to […]

Read More »

Two Killed, Two Hurt In Young Eagles Midair (Updated)

The pilot of Searey homebuilt that was in a mid-air collision with Cessna 172 during a Young Eagles event in western New York said his training kicked in after the two aircraft hit.”I just knew I had to keep flying the plane,” Kevin D’Angelo told a news conference. “As a pilot you train over and […]

Read More »

Arson Fire At Chicago Center Diverts Flights (Updated)

Air traffic was slowly returning to normal late Friday after an early-morning arson fire at the FAA Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (Chicago Center) facility in Aurora, Illinois, affected at least 1,950 flights. Chicago Center handles IFR traffic over some or all of the states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. As of […]

Read More »

FAA Allows Limited Commercial UAS Operation

As we reported Tuesday, the FAA has taken the first steps to allow commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in what it referred to as the National Airspace System by granting limited exemptions from the Federal Aviation Regulations to six aerial photo and video production companies to use UAS below 400 feet AGL on […]

Read More »

New This Week

AVweb’s weekly search of the latest developments in aviation uncovered news of the all-electric Sun Flyer’s flight tests, Sporty’s new ATP training course, two new vice presidents at Cirrus and a free trial of Aspen Avionics’s synthetic vision product.SunAero Electric Aircraft Corp. has entered the next phase of development for its high tech solar-electric training […]

Read More »

The Weekender: Color Touring and Poker Runs

It’s getting to be that time of year-the leaf-peeping flights are beginning in the far north and the high country, as are associated fly-ins and poker runs. Thanks to SocialFlight, we found out about the first of the fall color fly-ins, two poker runs and a fly-in dedicated to the “Grasshoppers” of World War II. […]

Read More »

Why You Should Always Carry a Knife in an Airplane

When I saw these photos–kindly sent to me by long-time reader Art Friedman–I immediately thought what a great real-world example they would be to illustrate Charles Law for a high school physics class. Or is it Boyle’s Law? Maybe both. It’s also a grim reminder of the value of always having a knife near at […]

Read More »
Sign-up for newsletters & special offers!

Get the latest stories & special offers delivered directly to your inbox

SUBSCRIBE