Accidents & Incidents

For a highly pertinent example of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) not following-up on its own research, look no further than its requirements for life preservers. I use life preservers as my prime example because, unlike avionics and other esoteric...

Instead of a journey to Mexico City lasting an hour or more, Aeromexico Flight 2431 was in the air for less than a minute after rolling down the runway at General Guadalupe Victoria International Airport at Durango. The airplane rotated to climb and then settled hard...

The aviation industry is now facing direct actions to abate the growing effects of climate change. The implications for the industry are profound: fewer flights with more passengers, higher ticket prices to offset the costs of environmental pollution, and perhaps even...

Investigation of the 20 July 2010 turbulence incident involving a United Airlines B777 over Missouri has just begun, but already a broader question arises: why haven’t all the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations to combat exposure to turbulence...

After the fatal crash, there was a flurry of activity from aircraft manufacturer Boeing and from the industry regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Neither Boeing’s actions nor the FAA’s after-the-disaster advisory addressed the core problems of fire...

The recent crash of a Lufthansa air cargo jet once again points out the vulnerability of all cargo aircraft to fire on the main deck. There is technology available to suppress such fires, but it has not been mandated by regulatory authorities. Aircrews are left with...

A hole blew open above the passengers sitting in the rear of the Southwest Airline’s B737 cabin, causing loss of pressurization and the pilots to make an emergency landing at Charleston, WV, rather than continue the flight from Nashville to Baltimore. Buried in the...

The notion of supersonic airline flight keeps popping up, like a perennial weed. The latest concept comes from Airbus, which envisions of all things an eco-friendly supersonic jet that will fly 100 passengers at hypersonic speeds. The Airbus concept for such an...

In the wake of the turbulence that struck United Airlines Flight 767, injuring passengers and flight attendants, the question arises: is the airline industry and is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doing everything possible to prevent mayhem from convective...

The remains of an insect in a pitot tube of a British Airways jetliner may well provide a clue to what happened to Air France Flight 447 when it experienced a loss of control and crashed into the Atlantic in June 2009, killing all 228 persons aboard. The insight comes...