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.
An NTSB final report into the fatal crash at an impromptu STOL competition in Nebraska in May of 2022 suggests the FAA inspectors onsite could have prevented the tragedy by enforcing rules already established for the STOL drag race that was supposed to be going on. The accident occurred during an unofficial STOL competition that […]
The pilot whose in-flight medical crisis prompted a non-pilot passenger to land their Cessna Caravan now has his medical back. Kenneth Allen was flying two passengers from the Bahamas to Florida on May 10, 2022, when his aortic artery tore. One of the passengers, Darren Harrison, who had no flight experience, took the controls and, […]
The Canadian crew of a scheduled helicopter passenger flight is being hailed for a successful emergency landing after lightning almost blew off the tail rotor of the aircraft they were flying. The Helijet Sikorsky S-76 was on its way from downtown Vancouver to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, when it was struck. The lightning took off […]
The FAA says a Hawker 800 “departed without permission” and collided with a Cessna Mustang landing on an intersecting runway at Houston Hobby Airport on Tuesday. The pilot of the airborne Hawker told a controller “We just had a midair,” but some reports said the two aircraft brushed each other on the runway. There were […]
The Senate confirmed White House nominee Michael Whitaker as the new FAA Administrator in a vote Tuesday. Whitaker seemed to breeze through the confirmation process, which was without the rancor and finger-pointing that marked the grueling questioning that previous nominee Phil Washington endured. Washington withdrew when it became obvious he didn’t have the votes to […]
What appears to be a good catch by a Portland tower controller kept two airliners apart at Portland International last week. An ATC recording and animation making the social media rounds over the weekend caught the attention of some networks and it was billed as the latest in a series of near-collisions at U.S. airports. […]
The FAA says an Alaska Airlines pilot flying in the jumpseat of an Embraer E175 on Sunday tried to disable the engines on the aircraft by attempting to set off the fire extinguishers on both. The flight, operating as a Horizon Air service, was headed from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco and diverted to Portland. […]
Cancellations mounted at Spirit Airlines on Friday as the airline cited “necessary” inspections for some of its aircraft. Data from FlightAware shows Spirit had canceled roughly 100 flights or 11 percent of its daily operations by Friday afternoon. Spirit said 25 aircraft were being inspected and the FAA was aware of the situation. It did not […]
The NTSB says the Cessna 177RG carrying AOPA Safety Institute head Richard McSpadden crashed about 440 feet short of Lake Placid’s Runway 14 in a failed attempt to return to the airport after McSpadden reported an unspecified problem with the plane. According to the preliminary report (click link at end of story) McSpadden was in […]
The parallel runway configuration—which may have staggered or offset thresholds, as well as intersections with other runways—can allow simultaneous takeoffs and landings under most conditions. Such runway configurations are found at airports in all airspace classes, B through G, and they may include turf surfaces, too. They offer operational flexibility a system of intersecting runways […]
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