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.

Superjet Belly Lands During Testing

Sukhoi is putting the best spin it can on the belly landing of one of its Superjet test aircraft in Iceland on Tuesday. Three pilots and two certification experts were aboard the aircraft during crosswind tests of its autoland system when, according to Sukhoi, the plane”touched the runway with retracted landing gear.” One of the […]

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Continental Diesels: Crunching the Numbers

Continentals purchase this week of the assets of Thielert Aircraft Engine GmbH didnt exactly come out of left field. Continental already declared its interest in diesel in 2010, when it announced the TD300 diesel. And that was before China-based AVIC International came into the picture with a necessarily global view, but not one that Continental […]

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NTSB Investigating 737 Nose-Gear Failure

The nose landing gear collapsed as a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 was landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport at 5:45 p.m. on Monday. The gear failed rearward and upward, the NTSB said on Tuesday afternoon, damaging the electronics bay. The exterior fuselage also was damaged from sliding 2,175 feet on its nose along Runway 4 […]

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FAA Says, Leave Those Drones Alone

A Colorado proposal to reward residents who shoot down drones could cause legal problems for anyone who tried, the FAA said this week. “Shooting at an unmanned aircraft could result in criminal or civil liability, just as would firing at a manned airplane,” the FAA said in a statement on Monday. “The FAA is responsible […]

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FAA To Issue 787 ELT Inspection Order

The FAA says it will issue an Airworthiness Directive this week to operators of the Boeing 787, requiring an inspection of the airplane’s emergency locator transmitters. “These inspections would ask operators to inspect for proper wire routing and any signs of wire damage or pinching, as well as inspect the battery compartment for unusual signs […]

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Short Final

An AA jet landed in ORD in the early morning before the beginning of a typical busy day. Expecting the usual complex taxi instructions, they instead had the following exchange: American 123:“Morning, O’Hare Ground. American 123 clearing 32 left for K8.” O’Hare Ground Control:“American 327, O’Hare Ground. Good morning. Taxi to the gate.” [Long pause.] […]

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Korean Pilots Protest NTSB Handling Of Asiana Investigation

The unions representing the pilots aboard Asiana Airlines Flight 214 say the NTSB’s handling of the accident investigation could skew the results and affect the finding of cause. The Asiana Pilots Association and the Airline Pilots Association of Korea say they’re concerned the outcome won’t accurately reflect the myriad factors that are associated with aviation […]

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Running Out of Gas: It Takes Focus

While it might be true that fear is just fear, the kind that comes in knowing youre running out of gas has a particular texture that seems uniquely capable of turning your brain to mush. I know this because like many pilots, Ive had the experience of nearly running an engine on air. I could […]

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Low And No Visibility Tech

BAE Systems recently demonstrated a system that provides helicopter pilots with situational awareness of their immediate surroundings while flying in zero visibility conditions. The company seeks to improve statistics that show more combat helicopters have been lost in Afghanistan to low visibility conditions than to enemy fire. The Brownout Landing Aid System Technology (BLAST) mixes […]

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FAA Sends Letter To Pilots Re: Medications

The FAA is sending a letter and fact sheet to all U.S. pilots to make them aware of the potentially negative effects that certain types of common over-the-counter and prescription drugs could have on the safety of flight. Specifically, the FAA notes the “sedative effects” caused by “many medications” and the ability of some medications […]

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