Accidents

“You can’t teach judgment.” “I’m afraid no amount of ‘risk management’ training is going to change your attitude.” These comments were in response to John’s May column, “Double Trouble at Denver.” John had revealed our incredible series of risk-management failures on a trip in the early ’70s — getting caught in a snowstorm in two separate airplanes […]

Although the term “precision approach” merely means that vertical guidance is included, it seems to imply that the approach ought to be executed with precision by both pilots and controllers. On a December evening in 2013, a Cessna 310 carrying a pilot, 60, and his two daughters, 17 and 20, crashed while executing a missed […]

A tourist taking photos at Pearl Harbor caught a frightening moment on video when a helicopter giving a tour of the area crashed into the water right in front of him. The video footage shows the Bell 206B quickly lose altitude over the water near the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii before crashing down Thursday […]

The family of Michael Copeland, a Qualcomm executive who died when the Cessna 172 Skyhawk he piloted crashed as a result of a midair collision with a Sabreliner 60 last August, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against New Jersey-based Serco Inc., the private air traffic control company that contracts with the government to provide […]

He was, according to his obituary, an “extreme and gifted athlete” in all he tried, including distance running, snowboarding and motocross racing. He “worked hard, but played harder.” A CFI who prepared him for his Private Pilot license described him as having “very high achieving and performance traits” and as being, though a conscientious flight student, […]

A sad accident happened at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, that should remind us all about the dangers of getting too close to an operating aircraft engine. An Air India employee was sucked into the engine of an Airbus A319 and died from the injuries sustained from the spinning jet-engine blades. According […]

When Germanwings Flight 9525 slammed into the French Alps in March, killing all on board, many aviation experts spoke out about improving the psychological and medical testing of airline pilots. In response, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is in the process of finalizing new regulations for increased airline safety. “We need to act quickly […]

Former aerobatic champion and Red Bull Air Race winner Mike Mangold died over the weekend when his single-engine Aero L-39 crashed shortly after takeoff from the Apple Valley Airport (APV) in California. The FAA and NTSB are investigating the cause of the crash. To say that Mangold was an accomplished pilot is an understatement. He […]

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee released a final report, detailing the events that led to the AirAsia Airbus A320 crash last December that killed all 162 people on board. Bad weather did not play a role in the crash, as initially speculated; instead, system malfunction and the crew’s response were the contributing factors. The initial […]

The Air Force Materiel Command has publicly admitted to a mishap in which an Air Force test pilot crew got the ride of their life in April of this year. An AC-130J Ghostrider, an airplane weighing as much as 164,000 pounds, went inverted during a test flight and was severely damaged, a mistake that is […]