Note to readers: From 2001 to 2008, I worked as an air accident investigator for Kreindler & Kreindler. I was not assigned to the Pan Am 103 case.  It is all well and good to focus on the bad guys responsible for the 1988 downing of Pan Am 103. In the recently released Netflix limited series, filmmakers make it clear how crime fighters determined the government of Libya and its agents produced a bomb and concealed it in a suitcase that would be boarded onto the Boeing 747 bound for New York. Flight 103 departed London on December 21, 1988 and exploded over Scotland killing… Read More…

Fellow lovers of the #windowseat, I’ve got some news. The decision to have the shade up or down may not be entirely yours.  Even I write these words the subject is achieving virality. This is due to a video posted online and a report on the aviation aficionados’ news website, View From The Wing. The story begins with a selfie video posted to Instagram . It is the as-it-happened-account @ohhhnyny but let’s caller her, Ms. Window Seat. In the video she is being debriefed by a flight attendant who reportedly removed her from the plane for not raising the shade to accommodate the request of… Read More…

If you know anything about the popular DnB performer Bou, you’ll know the UK musician and composer is known for frenetic dance music that is a creative blend of electronic and IRL sounds. But, if you stopped reading this post to do a quick Google (go ahead, I’ll wait) you will learn the Algerian-born, Manchester resident with the full name Amine Bouguenna, is fond of unlikely collaborations.  And of these, perhaps none is as unexpected as his latest partner on the Las Vegas stage, British Airways flight attendant Sophie Bunker. On August 5th, the day before his gig at We All Scream in Vegas, Bou… Read More…

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…