Stephen Pope

Two people were killed and one was critically injured on Tuesday morning when a news helicopter crashed and burned next to Seattle’s Space Needle. Two cars were destroyed in the crash as flames and plumes of black smoke poured from the burning wreckage about 50 yards from the base of the Space Needle, according to […]

Cessna and Beechcraft are officially part of the same company, the newly formed Textron Aviation, after parent company Textron on March 14 closed its acquisition of Beech Holdings LLC, the parent of Beechcraft Corp. Cessna and Beechcraft together recorded about $4.6 billion in revenues in 2013, making the combination a general aviation powerhouse. The $1.4 […]

More than 10 days after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on a mysterious flight that started out headed for Beijing but ended up who knows where, investigators appear no closer to locating the missing Boeing 777. But a series of tantalizing clues is providing at least a glimpse of what may have happened […]

If you’re headed to Oshkosh or Reno in 2015 you’re in luck. Watchmaker Breitling announced that the Breitling Jet Team will kick off its first-ever U.S. tour during the 2015 airshow season, including stops at EAA AirVenture and the Reno Air Races. The team has performed together in their black-and-yellow L-39 Albatros twinjets for nearly […]

Deborah Hersman, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board since 2004, announced she is leaving to lead the National Safety Council. She will continue at the NTSB until April 25 when Board vice chairman Christopher Hart will assume the role of acting chairman, the agency said. “It has been an honor to be associated […]

As the days pass, the likelihood of ever finding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370‘s black boxes grow dimmer. Searchers initially began looking for the jet in the Gulf of Thailand, the location of the Boeing 777’s last reported position. They then fanned out to the west, believing that the jetliner may have veered off course with […]

We’ve all cursed the guy prattling on for what seems like forever over the Unicom frequency as he supplies us with every last detail of what he’s flying, what he’s doing and what he plans to do next. Meanwhile, we can’t get a word in edgewise to let other pilots know we’ve just entered the […]

The winds have been downright nasty across the UK this winter, giving one local plane watcher the chance to put together an incredible YouTube video of harrowing crosswind takeoffs and landings. We don’t know what the metars reported for these challenging operations, but suffice it to say the winds in all case were strong with […]

Arguing that the safety of other aircraft and people on the ground is in jeopardy, the FAA said it will appeal a judge’s ruling that the agency lacks the legal authority to impose a total ban on commercial drone flights. The FAA’s action arose from a case involving Raphael Pirker, who was fined $10,000 for […]

The Obama Administration’s latest budget proposal once again includes a $100-per-flight air traffic services user fee that would apply to turbine aircraft operating on IFR flight plans. The 2015 White House budget drew immediate condemnation from aviation groups, which have defeated similar user fee proposals in the past. Pete Bunce, CEO of the General Aviation […]