News

“Aggressive intervention has become the societal norm,” the Flight Safety Foundation’s Bill Voss told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, about a passenger’s action to subdue would-be terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab on Christmas Day. Abdulmatallab succeeded in burning himself and not much more when the lives of 278 passengers were at stake. That is perhaps thanks to […]

Coming off a very volatile two years ravaged by world economic woes and steep fuel prices, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is predicting more losses in 2010, in spite of predicted upticks in travel and a forecast that business jets may rebound for 2011. IATA recently bumped its projection of a $3.8 billion loss […]

Boeing has released documents for airlines that show an increase in the 787 Dreamliner’s maximum allowable takeoff weight by 9.25 tons, sparking critics to speculate the number may account for increased girth as opposed to increased capacity. Boeing generally doesn’t disclose empty weights while its aircraft are still in development/testing, but that hasn’t stopped some […]

Authorities say a Nigerian man who locked himself in the bathroom of Northwest Flight 253 on Sunday, two days after the same Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight was the target of a bombing attempt, apparently had a good reason to be there. The unidentified businessman reportedly became ill on the flight and had made several trips to the […]

For the first time in its 54-year history, the annual NORAD tracking of Santa Claus around the world will do so without the good-humored officer who started the whole thing. Col. Harry Shoup was the guy who picked up the “hotline” deep in the underground command center at Colorado Springs on a December afternoon only […]

If you own a Cirrus SR20, our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, would like to hear about your experiences with it. We would like to know about operating and insurance costs, performance, factory support and your overall satisfaction with the airplane. Send comments to jeb.burnside@belvoirpubs.com. (Look for the results of the survey in a future issue […]

There appear to be no life-threatening injuries among the 156 people aboard an American Airlines Boeing 737 that left the runway on landing at Kingston, Jamaica, late Tuesday. Reports say 90 people had bumps, bruises and broken bones. Three remain in hospital. The flight from Washington, D.C., via Miami was trying to land in heavy […]

An iconic airframe that’s stood up to decades of punishment at the hands of students and new pilots and always kept a kind of jaunty air about it is celebrating its 50th birthday this year and EAA is helping celebrate. The first Piper Cherokee rolled out in 1960 and next year’s AirVenture Oshkosh is holding […]

EAA and AOPA have weighed in on the FAA’s new policy on through-the-fence agreements and both are asking the agency to back off. The new policy effectively outlaws the deals, in which property owners on land adjacent to an airport are granted access, usually via a gate that leads to a taxiway. Although the FAA […]

The president of the Cessna Skymasters Owners and Pilots Association says thousands of Cessna high-wing aircraft could be affected by a potentially expensive new wing inspection procedure proposed by the company. Herb Harney told AVweb the Supplemental Inspection Documents (SIDs) now being prepared by Cessna will require the removal of the wings of Cessna 336 […]