At a time when aviation has achieved an extraordinarily high level of safety, regulators and safety organizations are pushing for more improvements in pilot training to preempt future accidents and ensure that new pilots entering the ranks start off with the right approach. One of the key areas receiving extensive examination is stall training, both in the early stages of ab initio training and how it is taught later to pilots who are flying sophisticated high-performance jets.
Aviation accidents and incidents
November 19, 2012 - 2:05pm
The National Transportation Safety Board’s chairman Deborah Hersman and her fellow board members released the 2013 Most Wanted List of safety recommendations November 14 because, according to Hersman, “Transportation will be a big topic in the 113th Congress…We want to highlight our priorities and help assure safety has a seat at the table.” This year’s list includes an increased focus on improving airport surface safety, better detection of fires in all transportation modes and a continued look at the stubbornly st
November 12, 2012 - 1:45pm
Air Charter Safety Foundation president Bryan Burns said that an October 24 story in The Wall Street Journal has unfairly tarnished the safety record of business aircraft operations in the U.S. The article reported that 140 people have died in non-airline commercial aircraft crashes during the first 10 months of this year.
November 12, 2012 - 1:25pm
The NTSB issued a number of recommendations on November 1–A12-64 and A12-65–in an attempt to prevent aircraft accident first responders from being injured by ejection seats or ballistic parachute recovery devices at crash scenes. The Board wants the FAA to identify the devices aboard an aircraft during every tri-year registration and also determine a method of making that information readily accessible to emergency crews. Recommendation A12-66 will also require STC-modified aircraft to report any new on-board devices.
November 3, 2012 - 5:25am
By all accounts, the 1996 genesis of Bombardier’s Safety Standdown, an event that now regularly draws nearly 500 aviators to Wichita annually, was rather humble. Bob Agostino, director of Bombardier’s Flight Operations at the time and a trained accident investigator, asked his pilots for their thoughts after a particularly difficult accident investigation. One of them, Air Force veteran Dave Sullivan, explained how the military dealt with similar issues.
November 2, 2012 - 12:55am
Preliminary Report: Turboprop Single Crashes from High Altitude
Daher-Socata TBM 850, 75 miles west of Ottawa, Canada, Oct. 8, 2012–A TBM 850 spiraled from FL270 and struck the ground near the Canadian city of Calabogie, Ontario. The 26,000-hour pilot, also a flight instructor and the only occupant, was killed in the crash. The aircraft was brand new and registered on Sept. 18, 2012. The reason for the spiral has not yet been determined.
Preliminary Report: Twin-Turboprop Crash Kills 19 in Nepal
November 1, 2012 - 2:20am
The FAA is making progress implementing safety management systems (SMS) both within the agency and for the aviation industry as a whole, but the effort is likely to take many years to complete, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
October 29, 2012 - 1:30pm
Aviation accident statistician and former member of the NBAA board of directors Robert E. Breiling is this year’s recipient of the John P. “Jack” Doswell Award, granted annually for lifelong individual achievement in supporting business aviation.
October 29, 2012 - 12:45pm
Helicopter pilots need to take more ownership of a steadily increasing number of accidents, according to the International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST). In the seven-day period between October 10 and October 17 the industry reported four accidents that took the lives of seven people. Two accidents on the same day, October 10, claimed two lives, one in northeastern Pennsylvania and the other in central Louisiana.
October 16, 2012 - 3:50pm
Yesterday, Brazil’s Regional Federal Tribunal shortened the sentences of U.S. pilots Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, who survived the midair of their Embraer Legacy 600 with a Gol Airlines Boeing 737 over the Amazon in September 2006. In May last year they were acquitted in absentia on all but one of six charges.
During the appeals hearing, the Legacy pilots’ sentences were reduced from four years and four months to three years, one month and 10 days. The judges also struck down the suspension of Lepore’s and Paladino’s pilot certificates.
