Accidents

Schweizer 269C Newberg, Oregon / Injuries: 2 Fatal The instructor and student were conducting a night orientation flight. According to a witness who worked for the operator, about 15 minutes after the helicopter departed, he heard what sounded like an engine rollback and the helicopter making an autorotation. This was followed by the sound of […]

The NTSB this week released its 2017-18 “Most Wanted” list of transportation safety improvements, with general aviation issues chief among them. The Board also announced it will begin issuing the list every two years instead of annually, stating “the change allows more time for the transportation industry, safety advocates, regulatory agencies and individuals to effect […]

Although loss of control accidents have declined on the commercial side of U.S. air transportation, the data shouldn’t lull pilots of any size aircraft into believing the top cause of fatal accidents around the world has been reined in, a point demonstrated when the pilots of a chartered Hawker 700 lost control of their aircraft […]

“The entire normal operating checklist for the new Embraer Phenom 100 light business jet fits on both sides of a laminated card that you can slide into a shirt pocket,” former Flying editor Mac McClellan wrote approvingly in his 2009 report on the airplane. “The Phenom is designed to cut pilot workload to a minimum […]

(function(d, s, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) return; var js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = ‘//cdn4.wibbitz.com/static.js’; d.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0].appendChild(js); }(document, ‘script’, ‘wibbitz-static-embed’)); The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary briefing surrounding the uncontained engine failure aboard an American Airlines Boeing 767 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) last Friday included the basic facts of the harrowing and […]

When the airplane entered the clouds, there was no turning back.

Piper PA-24 Sturgis, South Dakota / Injuries: 1 Serious, 1 Minor The pilot reported that he was conducting an instrument approach in instrument meteorological conditions. Upon reaching the decision altitude, the front-seat passenger reported the runway was in front of the airplane. The pilot looked up from the instruments, but could not see the runway […]

Evolution Revo Buckeye, Arizona / Injuries: 1 Fatal The commercial pilot, who had a total flight experience of about 4,500 hours in conventional airplanes, was learning to fly weight-shift-control (WSC) aircraft with the expressed intent of purchasing a high-performance WSC aircraft. The pilot obtained all of his 13.5 hours of WSC experience, including his WSC […]

It probably can remain unspoken, but an airplane crash is not an item I care to list on my resume. As a professional pilot, that box is something none of us ever wants to check off in our career column. I’m also quite certain that absolutely none of my passengers would care to be participants […]

In the 10 years I’ve been writing for Flying, I’ve told the stories of heroic, ridiculous, amusing, embarrassing, illegal, skilled, humanitarian, negligent and wonderful things we pilots do — stories about me, as well as people I’ve known as instructors, FAA inspectors and examiners, or simply as fellow pilots. In short, I’ve tried to be […]