News

Nortel Networks has become the latest high-profile company to dump its corporate aircraft and it left the aircraft lessor holding the bag for the lease cancellation costs. Nortel, once a powerhouse in the dotcom world, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and one of its cost-cutting moves was to cancel the leases on its two […]

Citing a “deepening global recession,” Piper Aircraft, based in Vero Beach, Fla., abruptly laid off another 300 workers on Tuesday. “People aren’t buying planes,” Piper spokesman Mark Miller said in a statement. “Similar to many other businesses, general aviation has been experiencing one of the worst downturns in its history, and sales of airplanes have […]

The FortWorth Star-Telegram is reporting that Textron CEO Lewis Campbell told an investment conference on Tuesday that the corporation may have to sell either Cessna or Bell Helicopter to cover losses by its financial arm. Campbell told a Barclays Capital conference in Miami Beach that the company needs to raise $1 billion in the first […]

In his first major interview with the mainstream press Sunday night, USAir’s Chesley B. Sullenberger described the moment after his Airbus 320 ingested birds as “the worst, sickening pit of your stomach, falling through the floor feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. I knew immediately it was very bad.” In a 20-minute interview with […]

A breakaway group of former members of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) have formed a new organization. The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) grew from a group formed in October when NAFI’s board of directors announced its intention to dismiss long-time members Joanne and Sandy Hill from their contract position administering […]

A pilot from Burlington, Vt., apparently has some explaining to do after he allegedly made a radio call saying that his plane had crashed on a runway at Plattsburg International Airport in upstate New York. The Plattsburg Press Republican is reporting Nicholas Santo has been charged with a felony count of second-degree falsely reporting an […]

The FAA admits it’s relaxing lightning protection standards for commercial aircraft because manufacturers, notably Boeing with the 787, can’t meet the rules that have been in place since 2001. “To this day, we have not had one manufacturer that has been able to demonstrate compliance with that rule,” Ali Bahrami, head of the FAA’s Seattle […]

The passengers of Aeroflot Flight 315, a packed Boeing 767 out of Moscow for New York’s JFK Dec. 28, staged a coup, demanding that a pilot be removed from the flight after hearing his severely slurred preflight announcement. Reports state that the 55-year-old captain’s words, spoken in Russian, were barely intelligible and became worse when […]

Three major general aviation groups Thursday jointly requested that the TSA form a rulemaking committee and work with them toward creation of less burdensome security measures for crew and passengers operating aircraft exceeding 12,500 pounds. AOPA, GAMA and NBAA are fighting to reduce the reach of the Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) program that would […]

Boeing Thursday notified all operators of 777 aircraft flying with Rolls-Royce Trent engines that the aircraft’s fuel system is subject to compromise by ice. The notice is in agreement with both the NTSB and AAIB respectively that ice accretion in the fuel system was the cause when a Delta Airlines Boeing 777-200ER on Nov. 26 […]