Flight Safety

A UPS Airbus A300 cargo airplane on approach to Runway 18 at the Birmingham, Ala., airport crashed Wednesday morning at about 6 a.m. local time. Both crew members were killed, local authorities have reported. The aircraft hit the ground in an open field about a half-mile north of the runway, outside the airport boundary, broke […]

The annual adventure trip to Arizona with my buddies would have been better if we could fly around the desert in a rented Cessna as we planned. An important part of that plan included my checkout and endorsement to rent the FBOs Skyhawk. Unfortunately, scheduling the checkout turned out to be more difficult than I […]

AOPA and EAA responded this week to the FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive that would require thousands of GA aircraft owners to inspect and replace their ECi engine cylinders, saying the FAA’s plan would impose a financial burden while also compromising safety. Requiring the replacement of so many cylinders, in addition to repetitive inspections, goes well […]

A New Jersey man who didn’t want his boss following his every move has lost his job and had the book thrown at him by the FCC because the inexpensive ($68 and up) GPS jammer he carried in his truck shut down an experimental, high-tech, multimillion-dollar navigation system at Newark Liberty Airport. Gary Bojczak was […]

Overheard one evening as a Fayetteville, North Carolina controller was working with a Cessna that was requesting flight following. The Cessna had problems with a fussy transponder and the controller was attempting to help. After several exchanges: Tower:“N1234, I’m still getting an inconsistent transponder return. Confirm squawking 4567.” Cessna:“N1234 squawking 4567.” Tower:“N1234, transponder return is […]

Following last weekends debut of Planes and my conversation with some kids who had just seen it, I was vicariously imagining what it would take to inspire them to become pilots by remembering what inspired me. This isnt difficult, because I can pin it down to about the year, if not the day. It wasnt […]

Canadian police aren’t saying exactly how a young hot air balloon pilot died at a major balloon festival south of Montreal on Sunday but he wasn’t in his own balloon. The QMI Agency is reporting that 26-year-old Maxime Trepanier had already landed and was helping another crew land their balloon when he was somehow launched […]

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than it is to be good but the pilot of an aircraft that ditched off Key Largo, Fla., on Thursday seemed to have everything working in his favor. According to a news release, the unidentified pilot’s distress calls were heard by Key West Seaplanes pilots Julie Ann Floyd and […]

A total of nine passengers aboard Asiana Flight 214 that crash-landed in San Francisco on July 6 are suing the airline for damages, but they’re also going after Boeing, claiming the company sells aircraft with different classes of safety. As expected, the suit says Asiana’s crew was negligent when the Boeing 777 they were flying […]

The Rockwell Turbo Commander 690B that crashed into two houses in New Haven, Conn., on Friday was inverted when it hit the homes, the NTSB says. But spokesman Patrick Murray told Reuters the pilot, retired Microsoft vice president Bill Henningsgaard, did not make any distress calls as he turned the aircraft to land in rainy […]