Aviation News

A student pilot who survived a helicopter crash in December has filed lawsuits claiming his instructor was using FaceTime, a popular video chat application, on his cell phone during the instructional flight in a Robinson R22. The lawsuits were filed by the student, Jonathan Desouza, and his lawyer against the flight school that operated the […]

Is it time to rename the 59-year-old international avionics association? The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), currently holding its annual convention in Dallas, might want to think about calling itself the ADS-B Association. Much of the news and talk at the event, which was sold out to exhibitors and filling up with attendees by Thursday, centered […]

The National Transportation Safety Board released more than 800 pages from its accident investigation docket that reveal troubling clues about what may have caused last May’s crash of a Gulfstream IV in Bedford, Massachusetts, which killed seven people on board including Philadelphia Inquirer owner Lewis Katz. The most disquieting information contained in the trove of […]

Aspen Avionics has revealed an unusual approach to angle-of-attack (AOA) indication for light airplanes that uses a simple software update to the company’s Evolution flight displays without requiring any extra hardware, sensors or external aircraft modifications. Instead, the patent-pending technology calculates AOA from flight envelope data received through the Evolution display’s integrated air-data computer and […]

The National Transportation Safety Board yesterday issued four new Safety Alerts for general aviation pilots and mechanics highlighting risks uncovered in a number of recent accident investigations. Three of the alerts are geared toward pilots. They address: mountain flying skills and survival equipment considerations; transition training before flying an unfamiliar aircraft with different flight characteristics […]

Pilatus Aircraft, based in Stans, Switzerland, announced it had a record year for sales revenues in 2014. With revenues of CHF 1.174 billion (more than $1.2 billion), the company saw a 16 percent jump over 2013, which was also a strong year. Pilatus delivered 127 airplanes last year, 15 more than the previous year. The […]

A Cessna 414 carrying seven people on their way back from the NCAA Championship crashed in a farm field in central Illinois early Tuesday, killing everyone aboard. The twin-engine airplane was en route from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Bloomington, Illinois, when it went down approximately two miles east of its intended destination of Central Illinois Regional […]

The Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force (CAFSoCal) based at the Camarillo Airport (CMA), is planning a major expansion expected to cost around $10 million. To kick off the construction of a new hangar facility, the organization has received a $1 million donation from local antenna and sensors manufacturers Si and Betty Robin, […]

First responders were not clear what type of aircraft they were searching for after several eyewitness reports indicated that a crash had occurred in the Tennessee River about 20 miles west of Florence, Alabama. Some reported seeing an airplane while others said it was a helicopter that disappeared yesterday in foggy conditions over the river. […]

Talk about a lucky landing. A pilot parachuted to safety onto the top of a hospital parking garage in downtown Reno, Nevada, on Sunday after an apparent encounter with severe mountain wave turbulence tore both the wings off his German-built Schleicher glider. Longtime glider enthusiast Bob Spielman was reportedly attempting to return to Minden-Tahoe Airport […]