Risk Management

AmSafe has introduced a new universally applicable seatbelt airbag kit for normal category Part 23 aircraft. In a podcast with AVweb, AmSafe Technical Support Manager James Crupi said they hope to have FAA approval for the product, which they’re calling the State of the Art Restraint System (SOARS) by May 2018. The company has been […]

An effort to allow pilots to share expenses of flights with strangers has resurfaced, with a bill introduced on Wednesday by Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah. The Aviation Empowerment Act would add “definition and clarity to existing rules that will help unleash innovation in the aviation community,” Senator Lee said in a news release. Cost-sharing […]

In a week during which five military crashes killed seven service members, an article in the current issue of Newsweek raises questions about funding, training and maintenance in U.S. military aviation units. “The number of service members killed in noncombat aviation was 37 in 2017—almost double the 19 who died in 2016,” the piece states. […]

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

You’ve focused intently on pre-flighting the airplane, and you’ve paid attention to passenger safety and comfort. But that twinge in your lower back as you line up on the centerline gives you a moment’s pause. Taxi back to the ramp or press on? If it’s a kidney stone, and the pain only gets worse at […]

One of the comments made by some pilots when a group of them gather is that their spouses or significant others and family members won’t fly with them. While riding in little airplanes is certainly not to every person’s taste—and rising above the planet does generate a concern about returning to it less than gracefully—some […]

A pilot who was fired after complaining about the rest time allotted by his employer has been reinstated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The pilot, whose name has not been released, “reasonably believed” a new scheduling policy initiated by Boston MedFlight might not provide pilots with the rest time […]

For pure fun in aviation, not much beats flying seaplanes. The pilots I know who have found room in their aeronautical budget to get a seaplane rating have been uniform in telling me that they had a ball doing so and were glad they did it. As winter weather starts to retreat from the northern […]

The FAA on Thursday published an emergency order that prohibits the use of supplemental passenger-restraint systems in doors-off flight operations that can’t be released quickly in an emergency. “This order formalizes the FAA’s prior communications on these operations,” the agency said. The FAA had already told operators last week to stop the “doors-off” tours. The […]

An Alaska pilot was fined $25,000 last week and given probation and restitution after being charged with felony assault for striking a man in a boat while buzzing him in a De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floatplane. The incident happened on the Mulchatna River near Dillingham in June 2014. The victim survived but suffered permanent brain […]