Flight Safety

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on Wednesday to look into the FAA’s progress on implementing reforms mandated by the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act of 2020 (ACSAA). Stemming from the fatal crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610, both Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, ACSAA […]

Sen. Ted Cruz says Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen would be a slam dunk to take the permanent appointment if the Biden administration nominated him. Cruz, ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is reviewing the nomination of Phil Washington to the post, has stridently opposed the appointment, citing Washington’s relative lack of aviation […]

Strong thunderstorms are one of the places aviation and fear often intersect. And for good reason: severe storms have led to countless disasters, perhaps the most famous one being the Delta L-1011 crash at DFW Airport in 1985. That tragedy brought far-reaching consequences to flight training programs and ATC equipment, and led to advances in […]

Airframe icing can be found year-round, depending on geography and altitude. In North America, it’s the season when pilots of personal airplanes, which generally don’t fly high enough to worry about ice most of the year, need to factor it into their planning and execution. Even if you’re flying something with a form of ice […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) announced on Monday that it has received a grant from the FAA for its You Can Fly High School initiative. The $498,000 grant will be used to train additional educators on the program’s free high school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curriculum, which offers an aviation-oriented course […]

Forbes is reporting that lithium battery fires on airliners are happening at a rate greater than one per week. The magazine reviewed FAA data and found that at least 62 battery incidents happened in 2022, up from 54 the previous year and seven times the nine reports in 2014. The FAA says that’s how many […]

CBS News Analyst Robert Sumwalt is reporting that one person died on a Bombardier Challenger 300 that encountered severe turbulence and diverted to Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, on Friday. Sumwalt, who was head of the NTSB before joining the network as its Transportation Safety Analyst, said the aircraft is registered to a Kansas […]

The FAA’s Integrated Airman Certification and/or Rating Application (IACRA) system experienced several database issues on Monday, Feb. 27, resulting in a system restore and the loss of some user data, according to a notice issued by the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) on Thursday. The notice stated that the problem may have affected actions completed in […]

President Joe Biden’s pick for FAA Administrator Phil Washington faced a turbulent Senate confirmation hearing that included a Q and A from fellow non-pilot and staunch opponent of his confirmation Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. In what seemed to be an attempt to expose Washington’s lack of relevant experience for the job, Cruz asked Washington about […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]