Aviation News

The British company that operates helicopters for the Scottish police has grounded its worldwide fleet of 38 Eurocopter EC135s following a technical fault in a helicopter identical to the one that crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub late last month. A Bond Aviation EC135 leased to the police crashed at around 10:20 p.m. […]

FAA Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Fred Tilton drew broad condemnation from aviation leaders a day after he proclaimed that the agency will move forward swiftly with a policy requiring sleep apnea screening for overweight pilots in spite of action being taken by Congress to slow the process. During a December 12 webinar, Tilton insisted he […]

This morning, Textron AirLand successfully completed the first flight of the Scorpion, the company’s new tactical twinjet, which was announced earlier this year. The Scorpion took off from McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, and flew for 1.4 hours. “The flight was completed according to plan,” said test pilot Dan Hinson. “Having flown many […]

The fight against the third class medical requirement has taken a new turn. Republican Congressmen Todd Rokita and Sam Graves introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow private pilots who meet certain requirements to legally fly with a valid driver’s license instead of a third class medical certificate. While pilots […]

Fresh on the heels of reports that partner Brad Pitt has bought himself a Spitfire, actress-pilot Angelina Jolie’s name splashed across page 6 of the New York Post with an aviation-related story. “Angelina’s Plane Grounded by the FAA” was the headline. Lurid as that sounds, it appears to be no more than a complex paperwork […]

The Asiana Airlines training captain who crashed a Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in July was anxious about the visual approach, which he described as “very stressful,” according to investigators. Capt. Lee Kang Kuk, an eight-year employee of Asiana on his first extended trip flying the 777, also told investigators he was confused […]

The FAA is telling Aviation Medical Examiners to disregard, for now, the controversial obstructive sleep apnea policy introduced last month in a medical bulletin. In a memo to AMEs, the agency instructs physicians not to include body mass index calculations as part of airman medical examinations, at least not yet. The about-face comes after Congress […]

The Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are back. Their sequestration-driven hiatus from public performances is over, and the first performance will be a T-birds fly-over during the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. The Blue Angels will perform 68 demonstrations in 34 locations in 2014; and the […]

A family of three was killed over the weekend in a Cessna 310 crash near Jacksonville, Florida. The preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report indicates that the crash occurred at 6:21 p.m. on Sunday while the twin was flying in night IMC on a missed approach out of the Jacksonville Executive Airport (KCRG). The airplane […]

London’s Daily Mail newspaper has reported that actor Brad Pitt, 49, has acquired a Supermarine Spitfire for £2 million ($3.3 million), and will learn to fly it at the Boultbee Flight Academy in Oxford, U.K. The paper offered no information on who the seller is, nor what model Spitfire Pitt has bought. The actor is […]