Accidents

Highlighting the growing frustration aviation officials face in their quest to improve general aviation safety, accident statistics released this week remained virtually unchanged from 2011 to 2012, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. There were 1,471 GA accidents in 2012 versus 1,470 in 2011, according to the latest statistics compiled by the NTSB. Fatalities, […]

“Recognize that conversation is a powerful distracter.” As I quoted those words from the NASA study of crew error accidents in January’s article, a flood of accident case studies flowed through my head. Some I had discussed earlier in that same article — the Teterboro controller who was engaged in a discussion on the phone […]

Video footage and other evidence shows that the Southwest 737 whose nose gear collapsed upon touchdown at LaGuardia Airport last week landed nose gear first, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The Board reported that at four seconds before landing the 737-700 was pitched up about two degrees, whereas at touchdown the airplane was […]

Two men headed for EAA AirVenture in a Piper Cherokee died on Saturday afternoon when they crashed into Lake Michigan shortly after departing from Batten Airport in Racine, Wisconsin. Coast Guard rescue crews located the airplane submerged in the water a few miles off the coast near Milwaukee at around 5:30 p.m., an hour and […]

| The five members of the National Transportation Safety Board seated at the semicircular dais are demanding answers. Inside the theater-style auditorium at 429 L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., they grill safety experts and industry leaders for four long days. Their mission: to understand why the previous year was the deadliest ever for emergency medical […]

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 landed on its belly at Keflavik International Airport in Iceland over the weekend during a test evaluation of the airplane’s fully automated landing gear. The incident occurred while the jet was performing a landing with a simulated engine failure amid strong crosswinds. None of the five individuals aboard the Superjet were […]

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 lost its nose wheel on landing at New York LaGuardia Airport on Monday, spewing sparks as the jetliner skidded on its nose down the runway and injuring eight on board. The incident led to lengthy flight delays at LaGuardia after something went wrong as Southwest Flight 345 landed in light […]

An Air Force drone crashed on takeoff on Wednesday, exploding in a fireball and forcing the closure of a Florida Panhandle highway. Officials said no one was injured but the road could be closed for up to 24 hours. The Air Force shut down Highway 98 near Tyndall Air Force Base west of Panama City […]

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 […]

Nine passengers and the pilot on board a de Havilland Otter died on Sunday when the airplane crashed on takeoff from Soldotna Airport in southern Alaska. The weather included light winds and high clouds at the time of the accident, which occurred around 11:20 a.m. Soldotna Airport has one gravel runway and one paved runway […]