The final report on the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 tells a lengthy but ultimately old story; many things combined to lead to the October 29, 2018 disaster that killed 189 people. The National Transportation Safety Committee details nine as it lists the shortcomings of Lion Air, Air Nav Indonesia and Boeing. Incorrect, flawed, erroneous, incomplete and ineffective are just some of the damning words that litter the list of contributing factors. But it is its recommendation to Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration that goes to the heart of the global debate that heated up with the twin Max disasters. What is the… Read More…

When Margrét Halldórsdóttir was a girl in the sixties, career paths were more strictly prescribed than they are today. That was the case even in Iceland, one of the world’s most feminist countries – the first nation to elect a woman president and the first openly gay prime minister. Limited choices made no difference to young Margrét who knew from an early age she wanted to be a flight attendant, a nurse and a mother. Achieving all three, Margret, now 67, went further; she wove these separate jobs together creating a notable tapestry of work/family/community. On Monday, April 29th on a flight from Copenhagen to… Read More…

Note to readers: Many photos and all the videos in this post graciously provided by aviation vlogger and pilot Pedro Saldarriaga. Follow him on YouTube. It was a quick trip to Florida to take care of some business. I would be there and gone in just 24-hours so all I really needed was a clean, inexpensive room. But as my cursor hovered over the selections on the Airbnb website, how could I say no to the Man Cave, located, the listing said, “in my airplane hangar.” Click, and it was mine for the night. Like every other internet-age disruptor, Airbnb has its downsides, but where… Read More…

Twenty-one-year-old airline pilot Tristan Mazzu thought she’d found her dream job when she was hired as a first officer at SkyWest Airlines in 2017. But the glamour of flying was elevated when she was selected by Olay to appear in an ad campaign celebrating women who take on challenges. Her inadvertent entry into the world of modeling, has turned Mazzu into a role model for girls. In the minute-long ad, Mazzu reflects on the instructor who questioned her potential, stereotypes that reinforce discrimination, voices of doubt in her own head and the raised eyebrows of others when they see her in her pilot’s uniform. She… Read More…

When American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom sat down with the president of the Allied Pilots Association, Daniel F. Carey last week, it took mere minutes to come to an agreement, according to APA spokesman Dennis Tajer. “They had this,” Tajer said of the close-call American had with cancelling ten thousand or more flights during the busy holiday travel season. American agreed to pay pilots double time if they would return to the cockpit, filling flight decks left vacant after a software problem allowed too many pilots to opt out of holiday flying. But as I reported for Forbes, not all pilots are taking the… Read More…

Before the Wright Brothers mastered the air they were accomplished bike builders and competitive cyclists. All this was brought to my attention this Spring when on assignment for Air & Space magazine, I traveled for seven days by bike exploring the history of aviation in and around Dayton, the Wright’s hometown. You can read the full story here. Now, little more than a century later, we barely think twice about getting on an airplane on one side of the world and arriving on the other. The same cannot be said about biking in the sky. That is why I have a clear recollection of the… Read More…

On August 19, we celebrate Aviation Day. Granted, most people don’t actually celebrate. Most people probably don’t even know about this American holiday created 77 years ago. It was a birthday gift of sorts, to Orville Wright, who was still alive in 1939 when President Roosevelt set aside this date to promote flying. These days, with nearly two and a half billion people taking to the sky every year, aviation needs less promotion and more affection. That’s because mentioning air travel to anyone other than aviation geeks is most likely to prompt grumbling. Oh how quickly we take for granted the shiny new thing we were so excited about yesterday, to paraphrase… Read More…

Steam was coming out of my ears at the sight of photos from Breitling’s big New York City publicity event last week. The watchmaker was opening a new boutique on Madison Avenue. In addition to the flyboys, astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly and John Travolta, some athletes were in attendance, but the only women who were featured in front of the camera were the models selected to portray pilots in somebody’s aviation-themed fantasy. That’s the photo, above, you be the judge. Breitling hasn’t replied to my question, “What gives?” but some women pilots sure have their thoughts. You can check out their comments in my story… Read More…

Spend too much time at the big airports as I do, and its easy to slip into believing that behemoth centers of people-moving is what flying is all about. It’s not. On a beautiful, sunny summer day here in the southern hemisphere, I was reminded how wonderful it is to power down by visiting two small airfields in Chile where flying remains true to the poetic narratives of Antoine Saint Exupery, Richard Bach, Ernest K. Gann and others. Today, I spent the afternoon at the Club de Planeadores de Vitacura in Santiago, Chile – an 82 year old club for sailplane flying. While a steady… Read More…