Aviation Safety

At about 1530 eastern time, a Cessna 310 crashed shortly after takeoff from Merritt Island Airport. The pilot was killed. Witnesses at the airport said the pilot started the No. 2 engine first and that it was missing, sputtering, and back firing. The pilot then started the No. 1 engine, and performed engine runups with either one or both engines making the same loud missing, sputtering and backfiring noises. Despite the noises, the pilot proceeded to take off on runway 11, with one or both engines making unusual noises. One witness said he noticed the right propeller stop turning and saw the airplane banking toward the dead engine. The airplane crashed into a swamp about a half mile so…

At about 1330 eastern time, a Cessna 172M, N9840V, and a Cessna 172N, N6101F, collided while in cruise flight near Coral Springs. N9840V was destroyed, and the private-rated student and flight instructor were killed. N6101F incurred substantial damage, and the private-rated dual student and the commercial-rated flight instructor in N6101F were able to make a successful forced landing without injuries. Both flights originated from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport about 45 minutes earlier. The two airplanes were in a practice area that included the transmission tower for an AM radio station that some instructors use for ADF training. The surviving student pilot said they were receiving fluctu…

At about 2000 Alaska time, a Cessna 207 struck terrain during cruise flight about four miles southeast of Marshall. The pilot suffered serious injuries. The airplane was equipped with Capstone equipment, which uses GPS, a terrain database and a multifunction display to portray terrain threats. The pilot said he was experiencing a strong headwind and turbulence and the Capstone display was almost completely red just before impact. The airplane was located about 1,200 feet msl on the north side of a 1,714-foot ridgeline….

At 0950 eastern time, a Piper PA-28R-200 struck trees and crashed while maneuvering near Laurel Bloomery. The pilot received minor injuries. The pilot said he was practicing maneuvers in the local area when he encountered clear ice at 6,500 feet msl. He descended to 3,500 feet in an attempt to get below the icing conditions but was still picking up ice. He descended in a valley to 2,300 feet, and when he attempted to climb out of the valley struck the wooded terrain. The pilot telephoned rescue personnel via cell phone and was rescued at 1830….

At 1110 central time, a Cessna 177RG lost engine power and was damaged in the forced landing that followed. The pilot was not injured. The pilot reported he had taken off about five minutes earlier when the engine started to lose power. The pilot turned the airplane back toward the airport. The engine regained power and the pilot elected to continue the flight. Approximately 25 minutes later, while cruising at 3,000 feet msl, the engine gradually lost power. Unable to restart the engine, the pilot initiated a forced landing to a field, whereupon the airplane struck a ditch, flipped over and came to rest inverted….

At 1627 mountain time, a Cessna T210M struck terrain while maneuvering 16 miles northeast of Laramie, killing the pilot. Instrument meteorological conditions existed at the accident site and the airplane had been on an IFR flight plan. The pilot was at FL170 when he requested a descent to 13,000 feet to see if we can work our way through these clouds. Ten minutes later he reported he was presently about 39 miles to the northwest of Laramie. Got a pretty big opening. Im gonna cancel out on this IFR. I think I can make a big circle and get under this scattered layer… Radar contact was lost seven minutes later after the airplane had made three 360-degree turns and was at 10,500 feet. The…

At 1440 eastern time, a Taylorcraft 15A struck power lines shortly after taking off from Somerset County Airport. The flight instructor and airplane owner were not injured. The flight instructor said he and the pilot had traveled to Maryland to inspect and pick up the newly purchased airplane and fly it back to Michigan. The buyer was a commercial pilot but was not current in the airplane and had asked the flight instructor to accompany him and provide flight instruction while en route to Michigan. The day before the accident, the flight instructor flew the airplane alone for about 30 minutes and talked to the seller about the airplanes slow climb rate, which was about 300-400 feet per minu…

At about 2320 Pacific time, a Cessna 310L landed gear up on runway 30L at North Las Vegas Airport. None of the five aboard was injured. The pilot told investigators he was distracted from his pre-landing checklist by looking for traffic and forgot to extend the landing gear. He did not notice the green gear-down indicators were not illuminated and the gear warning horn did not activate until about a second before the propellers struck the runway. The control tower was closed, and air traffic controllers at another airport were notified that the airplane was disabled on the runway. No flight service station was notified and no notam was issued. At about 0545 the next morning a departing airpl…

I was assigned to ferry an OH-58A (a.k.a. Bell JetRanger) from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Corpus Christi, Texas, for overhaul. I was a newly minted Army captain, two years out of flight school, with about 500 hours of helicopter time.

I was on the second day of the ferry flight, with the VFR helicopter loaded down with sectionals and all of the helicopters logs and records. The weather was good VFR, and I was flying along the Texas coast from Galveston to Corpus Christi, listening to local radio on the ADF. I was flying low enough that it would have been illegal over a congested area, but high enough that my whirling wings werent kicking up sand as I blew down the coast at all of 90 knots.

Your article Pin Placement [Accident Probe, November] questions the pilot/owners non-compliance with a Beech service bulletin.

One of my former jobs was as an engineer at a major airline. One of my tasks was to review the steady stream of service bulletins that came in from the aircraft manufacturer and evaluate whether to comply fully, partially, or not at all with a particular bulletin.

Most of these bulletins had the word Mandatory across the top in red letters. My office was run by a stickler for safety who would stand up to any airline management for something that had a true safety impact.

We complied with relatively few of the mandatory service bulletins that came in. Th…