Stephen Pope

In one of the more peculiar episodes to emerge from an air crash investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday issued a red-faced apology after a San Francisco television station fell victim to a prank and broadcasted “inaccurate and offensive” names of the pilots aboard Asiana Flight 214. The strangeness began when a KTVU-TV […]

Plane spotters in England got the scare of their lives when a Eurofighter Typhoon came within feet of the perimeter fence at RAF Waddington while landing for an airshow earlier this month. Spectators scrambled for cover as the jet roared past, its wheels barely skimming over the large group of spotters. In photos taken of […]

The FAA yesterday issued a long-anticipated final rule requiring airline first officers to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate with a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight time in the majority of cases. The new requirements, which take effect on August 1, will shut the door on career opportunities for some low-time pilots and make […]

The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday revealed that the Asiana pilot at the controls of the Boeing 777 that crashed at San Francisco International Airport over the weekend has told investigators that he was temporarily blinded by a “bright light” on the approach while passing through 500 feet. NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said it […]

Piper Aircraft has made a series of test flights in a Lycoming-powered Archer running on 93-octane premium automotive gasoline as the Vero Beach, Florida, manufacturer seeks a more environmentally friendly alternative to 100LL fuel. For the tests Piper worked with Airworthy AutoGas of Phoenix to evaluate a new high-purity unleaded fuel due to go on […]

The Asiana Boeing 777 that crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday was flying in an unusually nose-high attitude on approach and “significantly below” its target airspeed, investigators said yesterday. The NTSB has confirmed that the jetliner had its gear down, flaps set to 30 degrees and the engines were at idle power — […]

The NTSB is pushing back — hard — to refute claims by a group of documentary filmmakers and former crash investigators who say a missile attack and not a fuel tank explosion brought down TWA Flight 800 in July 1996. At a rare media briefing in Virginia yesterday in front of the reconstructed Boeing 747, […]

I’ve watched “TWA Flight 800” — the much-hyped Epix original documentary that purports to present “new” evidence proving that a missile attack brought down the Paris-bound Boeing 747 over the Atlantic 17 years ago this month. Yesterday I interviewed Hank Hughes, a former NTSB investigator who was involved in the TWA 800 investigation. Here is […]

Avantair, the Clearwater, Florida, fractional ownership operation, shut down on Wednesday and furloughed all of its pilots and workers. The company, which operated a fleet of Piaggio Avanti twin turboprops, said it needs additional financing to start flying again and is in danger of having some airplanes repossessed. Avantair employed around 500 people and operated […]

A huge number of portable ADS-B receivers has hit the market in the last couple of years, giving pilots instant access to traffic and weather information on their iPad or Android tablets. Weather is broadcast continuously so there isn’t much mystery there. But traffic data is somewhat limited. This can make ADS-B confusing as pilots […]