Accidents

Two fatal accidents, both involving Cessna Citation jets, occurred within two days of each other last week. In the first accident on May 22nd, a Citation 550 SII crashed shortly after takeoff from Indianapolis Regional Airport (MQJ) killing the two people aboard. The second accident on May 24th involved a Citation 560 Encore being flown […]

The U.S. aviation industry’s hard work to reduce the accident rate of air carriers shows. Over the past decade, Part 121 flight operations have experienced just a single death. That puts the industry safety record just a notch short of perfect when measured by the number of fatalities. But earlier this month, the industry came […]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday released the preliminary report of its investigation into the May 13, 2019, mid-air collision approximately seven miles northeast of Ketchikan, Alaska between a float-equipped de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver and a float-equipped de Havilland DHC-3 Turbine Otter. The DHC-2’s commercial pilot and four passengers were fatally injured and the […]

Five people are dead after two floatplanes carrying passengers from a Royal Princess cruise excursion collided near Ketchikan, Alaska, on Monday afternoon, according to the cruise line. Princess Cruises confirmed that the pilot of a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver and all four passengers on board were killed in the collision with a Taquan Air de […]

While 41 passengers lost their lives aboard an Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100 that exploded on landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday, the 37 people who escaped are crediting their survival to the quick thinking of the airline’s flight attendants, one of whom lost his life in the effort. Shortly after departing Moscow, the aircraft […]

Aerobatic performer Spencer Suderman got a nasty surprise this weekend as he was flying over the San Fernando Valley, one of the most congested parts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Suderman was cruising at 7,500 feet on his way to Yuma, Arizona, when his propeller suddenly departed the Pitts S-1C biplane he was flying. […]

Maintenance techs aren’t required to be pilots or aerodynamicists.

A piece of aviation history was lost yesterday as the last of four 1/3-scale prototypes built during the development of the Northrop XB-35 Flying Wing bomber, the N9MB, crashed in a prison yard in Norco, California. The Flying Wing has been maintained and operated for many years by the Planes of Fame Air Museum in […]

Japanese Air Self Defense Force investigators say they have found a small section of wing of a Lockheed Martin F-35 that crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern Japan on Wednesday. Now the daunting task of recovering the secretive jet and its pilot from the sea floor begins as searchers ponder whether […]

Ethiopia Airlines provided details of a preliminary report that the airline says determined that the pilots of a doomed Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed last month, killing all 157 people on board, followed Boeing procedures outlined after a similar crash in Indonesia five months earlier, but even the new training did not allow the […]