Accidents

(August 2011) It has often been said that accidents result not from one big cause, but from a lot of little ones that happen to converge in some unforeseen way. Nevertheless, many fatal accidents do arise from one simple cause: VFR pilots flying into IFR weather. This happens so regularly, and in so monotonous a […]

(August 2011) At the end of my previous article I wrote that “pressure is at the heart of most accidents.” As I read through the final proof copy of that article, it struck me that there is more to the story than that. Even though pressure seems to be a significant factor in many accidents, […]

Two men were killed on Saturday when they made a forced landing in a replica Wright Model B Flyer in a rural Ohio field. The men were conducting a test flight in the replica, known as the “Silver Bird,” when they made a radio call from the air alerting authorities about their impending forced landing. […]

(August 2011) After the nearly miraculous** retrieval of the black boxes** from Air France Flight 447, the Airbus A330 that disappeared in the mid-Atlantic in May 2009 with 228 souls aboard, it quickly became apparent that the events that led to the crash, until then magnified by the lens of mystery — a monster storm? […]

The F-16 seen below was caught on amateur video as it overran the runway last week while landing at EAA AirVenture, America’s biggest airshow held annually in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The fighter’s nose gear collapsed and its nose cone broke apart upon impact. Emergency crew on site immediately responded to the incident. The exact circumstances of […]

The French authority responsible for investigating aircraft accidents, known as the BEA, just released a new report on the Air France 447 crash that occurred in the summer of 2009, killing all 228 people on board. An initial report issued by the agency in May stated the Airbus A330 stalled at high altitude after the […]

The official Air France 447 accident report will be released this Friday, French officials announced. According to the BEA, the national aviation investigative unit of France, “This report will present the exact circumstances of the accident with an initial analysis and some new findings based on the data recovered from the flight recorders.” The official […]

(July 2011) In November 2007, the builder-pilot of a Van’s RV-10 was killed when his engine apparently lost power at low altitude. He had relocated the batteries the night before to move the CG forward, and was checking the airplane before departing on a planned trip with his family later that day. The accident raised […]

The wing of a Boeing 767 clipped the tail of a regional jet while taxiing last week at Boston Logan International Airport, adding to the growing tally of commercial airliner ground incidents in recent months. The Delta 767 involved in the collision was taxiing out for departure at around 7:30 p.m. last Thursday when its […]

The NTSB has launched a study of homebuilt aircraft that aims to gather data about the machines that make up what NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman cited as having played “A crucial and inspirational role in leading the way toward greater achievements in manned flight.” The purpose of the study, however, is not to inspire advancements […]