PART ONE As more information emerges from the potential collision of the President’s military helicopter with a commercial airliner in Washington Wednesday, this is worth noting. It is the fourth investigation launched in less than two years by the National Transportation Safety Board in which military operations created hazards for commercial flights. In 2 of the 3 events where a probable loss of separation between military aircraft and commercial flights was the issue, the worst did not happen. Having the Presidential helicopter in the latest episode certainly ratchets up the visibility of the problem. I’ll be writing about the latest event today, and the others… Read More…

Longevity itself can make a death notable, but the passing of two people in aviation this month is worth our attention not just how long they lived but for what they did with the years God gave to them. Azreil (aka) Al Blackman, whose 80 year career as an airplane mechanic is a Guinness World Record, was 96 when he set down his wrench in 2022. He died a week ago, shortly after his 100th birthday. His  career in aviation started at the age of 16 when he landed an apprentice position at American Export Airlines in New York. When the airline was acquired by… Read More…

Friday marks thirty years since a TWA flight from New York to Paris exploded after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Airport, killing everyone on board. With hindsight, we can see this was the disaster that predicted more Boeing design flaws, more accidents and more lives lost and by that I refer to the Boeing 737, 737NG, 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner. On July 17, 1996, a TWA Boeing 747 was split in two by a blast in its center fuel tank. It jettisoned the front of the airplane downward into the Atlantic, and tipped the aft end upward where its wings broke off in ascent,… Read More…

A 61-year old Serbian man was partially blasted out of a Ryanair jet as the flight departed Thessaloniki in Greece bound for Germany Friday. He was sitting by the right side window when it suddenly fractured, the result of an what seems to be an uncontained failure in the right engine. In this video, posted to Reddit, several fan blades appear to be broken and more are damaged. There is a sizeable hole in the engine nacelle. The broken out window is above this engine. https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/OTXd69iCfp The 18 year old plane is a Boeing 737 NG equipped with CFM engines that have previously been a… Read More…

After 15 years, Nick Bilton re-emerged on my radar screen when he fired CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley earlier this week. I can’t/won’t opine on that fracas but for now it appears Bilton is on top. I know Bilton from my own unpleasant journalism experience with him back in the early 2010s. Then as now, I work from my home office making a living as a freelance aviation safety specialist and journalist. Bilton’s career has soared. He is an author, movie maker, magazine writer and now, Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, one of the most famous and lauded network television news programs in… Read More…

Someone or something in the cockpit of a China Eastern Boeing 737 switched off the jetliner’s engines causing the plane to crash short of its destination in Guangzhou, China in 2022. This comes from an analysis of the plane’s flight recorder by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and it quickly got tied to the still unexplained crash of Air India Flight 171 nearly a year ago. But are the two related?  And should air travelers be worried about the people flying their airplane? Let’s take a sensible look at the facts. The unusual release of what is normally confidential investigation information from the China… Read More…

The shocking collision of an Air Canada airplane with an emergency vehicle at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night has more than its share of horrifying videos, photos and statements from those aboard the Bombardier CRJ-90. But before public attention wanders off, dismissing this event as an isolated nightmare, I’m asking you to see it as the bad news/good news story that is commercial aviation in the 21st Century. First the bad news. This may surprise you. Forget the Hollywood movies that show airliners spiraling out of control or flying into a mountain. A sizeable number of airplane crashes happen on the ground, at the airport,… Read More…

Air Canada regional flight 8646 operated by Jazz Aviation from Montreal to New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, plowed into an airport fire truck that crossed the runway just ahead of the landing airplane. Pilots Antoine Forest, and MacKinzie Gunther, both of Canada were killed. Scores of passengers on the Bombardier CRJ-900 were injured along with the occupants of the fire truck. Video posted to Instagram by Simon Hradecky, publisher of the Aviation Herald, shows the moment of the collision.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by SpeedbirdHD (@speedbirdhd) The fire truck was operated by the Port Authority of New… Read More…

The title of Caroline Paul’s new book poses a seemingly simple question: Why Fly? Her answer unfolds on many levels, like a particularly fetching landscape you’ll want to remember flying over. Why Fly is funny and geeky with a healthy, stealthy dose of little-known aviation facts. It is also a thought-provoking and beautifully written amble through Paul’s adventures in the sky. An intrepid outdoorswoman, firefighter, and author of eight books, Caroline Paul learned to fly in a Cessna 152 when she was 20 years old. She did not find the 24-foot 2-seat airplane satisfying. It felt too much like being in a “soup can” she… Read More…

Dean Kamen, the inventor best known for the creation of the Segway, is the latest wealthy entrepreneur/public figure to be outed for his relationship with serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Over the past few weeks, Kamen has stepped down from a board position with BETA, a Vermont aviation tech company and FIRST, a program he founded to promote STEM education for children, the latter move pending the outcome of a thorough investigation. This may appear to be a fast crisis response, but don’t be misled. No Congressional Epstein Files Transparency Act was needed to know that Kamen and Epstein went way back, and not because of… Read More…