http:// What a flight! Made it!! Still here!! #southwest #flight1380 pic.twitter.com/Cx2mqoXVzY — Joe Marcus (@joeasaprap) April 17, 2018 A woman on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas died after being partially sucked out of the window of the Boeing 737 on Tuesday morning. A failure in the left engine triggered a rapid decompression of the aircraft cabin. The woman’s father, Todd Baur, told a reporter that other passengers pulled his daughter back into the aircraft. But she later died from her injuries. In a video posted on Facebook, passenger Marty Martinez who was seated a few seats away from Baur’s daughter… Read More…
The pilot of the Eurocopter AS350 that lost engine power while flying over New York’s Central Park on March 11, briefly considered putting the helicopter down in Central Park but concluded there were too many people on the ground below. Instead, Richard Vance tried to slow the helicopter’s descent as he flew toward the East River in the aircraft on which the doors had been removed to enhance visibility for sightseeing. In an interview with the National Transportation Safety Board after the accident that killed all five passengers, Vance, 33, said when the helicopter first hit the river and began to fill with water, he… Read More…
The pilot of the sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the East River in Manhattan on Sunday night killing all 5 passengers, told investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board that the man seated beside him may have inadvertently triggered the chopper’s plunge by cutting fuel to the engine. The Associated Press is reporting that Richard Vance, 33, suggested a strap from a bag may have gotten tangled with the emergency fuel shutoff. Vance was piloting the helicopter from the left seat. A photo posted on Instagram from 26-year old Trevor Cadigan early in the flight, shows he was seated to the pilot’s right. In that case,… Read More…
Having experienced its first fatal crash last month, the founder of ICON Aircraft Kirk Hawkins is understandably on edge. I’m to blame for some of that, apparently. In a previous post, I suggested he was pointing the finger at the pilot of the A5 that crashed on Lake Berryessa on May 8. Here’s why. On the day the National Transportation Safety Board issued its preliminary report into the accident, ICON published on its website, a statement that offered even more information than the NTSB. “We’re unsure why the plane flew into such a narrow canyon that had no outlet,” the company statement read. Knowing Hawkins’ off-stated… Read More…
Investigators don’t know what caused the fatal plane crash last week of the new and highly-anticipated light-sport Icon A5, but in a statement on the company website, Icon’s director of flight, Shane Sullivan suggests pilot error was an issue. “We’re unsure why the plane flew into such a narrow canyon that had no outlet,” Sullivan wrote. Such speculation by an interested party during the investigation is highly unusual and frowned upon by the National Transportation Safety Board. On May 8, aeronautical engineer and chief test pilot Jon Karkow was piloting the two seat amphibious A5 with Icon’s new director of engineering, Cagri Sever on board as a passenger…. Read More…
For an update on this event from the NTSB click here. Uncontained engine failures are relatively rare. Rarer still is the failure that leads to a hull loss. But American Airlines Flight 383, a Boeing 767 routed from Chicago to Miami was on its takeoff roll on Friday afternoon when passengers reported a loud explosion quickly followed by black smoke and fire just outside the right side of the aircraft. “People are yelling, ‘Open the door! Open the door!’ Everyone’s screaming and jumping on top of each other to open the door,” Sarah Ahmed told Chicago’s ABC television station, WLS. Ahmed said she could smell smoke… Read More…
READ THE UPDATE HERE Confused yet? You’re not alone. Anybody watching the three men at today’s Dreamliner news conference might have felt like that they were listening to that country & western song in which a husband still trying to defend himself after being caught with his mistress asks his wife, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” Over the past few months anyone paying a modicum of attention has seen Boeing’s game-changing 787 fly from one problem to another until this week when, in a crescendo worthy of a Japanese horror film, there were four unfortunate events including a battery fire on the… Read More…
