News

Five people, including two Continental Airlines employees, face up to five years in prison if a French court finds them responsible for the crash of an Air France Concorde supersonic airliner near Paris almost 10 years ago. A four-month trial has begun into the July 25, 2000, crash that killed all 109 people on the […]

Department of Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood came out swinging Tuesday against a USA Today report that alleged that 65,000 airline flights over the last six years occurred in aircraft that were not properly maintained. The newspaper said the findings surfaced after a six-month investigation into maintenance practices by the airlines and oversight by the FAA […]

The budget plan released by the White House this week drops last year’s proposal to impose aviation user fees, and instead retains the traditional FAA funding formula of taxes on tickets and fuel plus a general-fund contribution. “We have waged a 12-month campaign since the moment we learned of a planned $9.6 billion fee,” AOPA […]

The probable cause of the Colgan Air crash that killed 50 people near Buffalo, N.Y., a year ago was the captain’s inappropriate response, characterized as “startle and confusion,” after the stick shaker was activated, pulling back when he should have pushed forward, the NTSB reported in a hearing on Tuesday. Contributing factors included the crew’s […]

One of Asia’s biggest aviation events, the Singapore Air Show, opened today and while there are not expected to be any monumental announcements, there is a theme of conservative optimism about the show and there is some money being made. Cessna opened the show with the statement that Asia has been a rock in the […]

A traffic spotter Cessna-apparently a 152-made a successful emergency landing on the northbound lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike early Monday morning. It touched down about two miles south of exit 4 on the pike, near Cherry Hill and east of Philadelphia. The two people aboard-a pilot and spotter-weren’t injured nor did the aircraft appear […]

China has plans to build almost 100 new airports by 2020 and one of them planned for completion in 2014, Nagqu Dagring Airport, may claim the title of highest airport in the world. The Tibetan Branch of the China Civil Aviation Administration says the airport’s construction will begin in 2011 at Nagqu prefecture in Tibet […]

Chet and Matt Pipkin plan to set a new record for time aloft in an airplane, a record that currently sits at 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and five seconds, according to the men. The record was set in a Cessna 172, and the Pipkins intend to beat it in a (modified) 172 … […]

The FAA has withdrawn or modified certain language that defines the certification of aircraft and airmen for the operation of light sport aircraft. In the final rule, the FAA has modified one proposal first listed in the 2008 NPRM and eliminated eight others. The FAA has chosen not to replace sport pilot privileges with aircraft […]

The FAA plans to host open meetings, the results of which “will affect the next 20 years of small airplane design, certification, and operations,” according to the agency. The plan is to use public input to help determine how well the current airworthiness standards work through the course of an aircraft’s service life and with […]