News

In an unusual move, the NTSB on Thursday will release four probable-cause reports all at once, together with interim factual reports on five other accidents. All nine of the accidents involved helicopters that were engaged in emergency medical flights, all of them occurred since December 2007, and all of them were fatal, resulting in 35 […]

After several years of bickering among airlines and business-aviation advocates about who will pay what taxes and user fees, all the aviation groups now are banding together to lobby for a piece of the expected stimulus package under discussion in Washington. “As we’ve gone around and done meetings on Capitol Hill, that’s been one of […]

The FAA’s plan to take forecasters out of the 21 Air Route Traffic Control Centers around the country and consolidate weather services at two sites, in Maryland and Kansas, is drawing opposition from the GA alphabet groups. The FAA has set a deadline of Feb. 23 to come up with a plan for the change, […]

Unprecedented crowds are expected in Washington, D.C., next Tuesday for the presidential inauguration events, and that will lead to unprecedented air traffic problems, especially on Wednesday. “People will be trickling in over the weekend, and all coming out on the 21st,” Tad Hutcheson, a spokesman for AirTran Airways, told the Chicago Tribune. AirTran and other […]

Business aviation groups are breathing a collective sigh of relief with the news late Tuesday that Congress has dropped a provision from a business assistance plan that would have required companies to get rid of their aircraft to qualify for relief. In a last-minute revision, Congress agreed to drop an amendment that would have required […]

An Atlanta lawyer and pilot claims the Transportation Security Administration’s Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) is unconstitutional and he’s started a campaign to convince Congress of that. Alan Armstrong says the stated goal of the program is to prevent aircraft from being used to carry biological, nuclear or other weapons in attacks against the U.S. […]

Police in Quincy, Fla. say they’ve arrested an Indiana pilot who is alleged to have faked a distress call, parachuted from his Piper Meridian and fled a small Alabama town on a motorcycle he’d hidden there. Earlier, some authorities suspected Marcus Schrenker had managed to leave the country in his apparently determined bid to escape […]

The Associated Press is reporting that a public auction to sell the assets of Eclipse Aviation Wednesday has been cancelled for lack of qualified competing bidders. According to AP’s story, that will pave the way for EclipseJet Aviation, owned by current Eclipse Chairman Roel Pieper, to pick up the company for roughly 20 cents on […]

When Quest Aircraft launched its Kodiak design back in 2005, the company said it was motivated by a need to support missionary activities in remote places around the world. This week, that goal has been fulfilled with the delivery of Kodiak serial number 008 to JAARS Inc., the first mission or humanitarian customer to take […]

Soon after retiring from his 18 years as AOPA’s president, Phil Boyer has taken a next step common to many executives who complete a successful career while still healthy and full of energy — he has joined the board of an industry stalwart. Aspen Avionics announced on Tuesday that Boyer will be the first outside […]