Flying on a gorgeous afternoon last week in the Florida Keys, I saw something that made me shake my head. From my vantage point cruising east at 1,200 feet after stopping for lunch in Key West, I spotted a tiny speck of an airplane at an altitude of maybe 50 feet buzzing cars on a […]
The British company that operates helicopters for the Scottish police has grounded its worldwide fleet of 38 Eurocopter EC135s following a technical fault in a helicopter identical to the one that crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub late last month. A Bond Aviation EC135 leased to the police crashed at around 10:20 p.m. […]
FAA Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Fred Tilton drew broad condemnation from aviation leaders a day after he proclaimed that the agency will move forward swiftly with a policy requiring sleep apnea screening for overweight pilots in spite of action being taken by Congress to slow the process. During a December 12 webinar, Tilton insisted he […]
The Asiana Airlines training captain who crashed a Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in July was anxious about the visual approach, which he described as “very stressful,” according to investigators. Capt. Lee Kang Kuk, an eight-year employee of Asiana on his first extended trip flying the 777, also told investigators he was confused […]
The FAA is telling Aviation Medical Examiners to disregard, for now, the controversial obstructive sleep apnea policy introduced last month in a medical bulletin. In a memo to AMEs, the agency instructs physicians not to include body mass index calculations as part of airman medical examinations, at least not yet. The about-face comes after Congress […]
Gallup reported today that Congress’ approval rating has dropped to 14 percent, the lowest figure in four decades of polling. The recent battles over the budget and health care are driving the public’s exasperation with the House and Senate, and rightly so. But pilots shouldn’t be so quick to criticize. Never have we enjoyed a […]
American Airlines emerged from bankruptcy protection on Monday as it officially merged with US Airways to create the world’s biggest airline. Concluded after 10 turbulent months that included an antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department, the merger creates an airline even larger than the industry saw with the coming together of United and […]
Passengers who survived the crash of a Cessna 208 Caravan near St. Mary’s, Alaska, over the weekend have told investigators the airplane “dropped out of the sky” without warning during the flight in conditions described as low ceilings and freezing rain. The pilot and three passengers, one of them a five-month-old baby, were killed in […]
The operator of the police helicopter that crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub last Friday grounded its entire fleet of Eurocopter EC135s for a time last year amid serious concerns about rotor hub shaft cracks, according to public records. Accident investigators in the U.K. haven’t indicated that the grounding played a role in […]
The trend among aviation educators to ingrain in students the importance of keeping their eyes looking outside the cockpit is excellent counsel in an increasingly digital world. But an equally important piece of the safety puzzle is to use everything in our arsenal, from our eyes to our ears to the avionics in the panel, […]
