The twin-turboprop cleared the ground by about 112 feet as the pilots recovered from the stall. They then climbed to a safe altitude and a few moments later completed an uneventful landing. The incident underscores the continuing hazard of in-flight icing, the need for aircrews to be extremely ...

Static port drain lines were left open, causing havoc on check flight Maintenance blunders keep catching pilots by surprise. Fortunately, the savvy and experienced pilots of a United Parcel Service B747-200 freighter were able to retrieve the situation during a maintenance-related check flight. The ...

Fewer people and less money - after accounting for inflation - will be available in coming years to provide safety oversight of the aviation industry. The information emerging from recently released U.S. government budget documents shows that some high priority safety programs are being sharply cut ...

Incorrect weight and speed data can be potentially deadly, and multiple defenses against such human error can be breached, especially when aircrews are hurried or distracted, and when the computer accepts erroneous data without an error check, rather like a word processor without a spell checker. ...

Scheduled sleep periods critical for safety of ultra-long haul flights The amount and quality of sleep long-haul pilots obtain during flight is a critical factor in the safety of ultra-long range flight operations. A recent study suggests that a sleep period later in the flight results in a more ...

Traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) technology will not be required on cruising aircraft separated vertically by 1,000 feet, according to a final rule on domestic reduced vertical separation minimum (DRVSM). Nor has the rule been issued with a complete and final safety analysis, as ...

A new aviation safety index - analogous to the famous Dow Jones measure of stock performance - will be used to measure the risk of death and injury in the aviation industry. Developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the index applies to all people exposed to risk from the civil ...

"Most Wanted" list of safety improvements to be part of overall examination Safety advocacy programs will be intensely reviewed for their effectiveness, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced last week. The decision to undertake a special review came at the end of the ...

Repairs can cover and conceal evidence of structural weakening Fatigue damage under patches known as doublers can be deadly, and an expanded hunt must be mounted to find spreading cracks before they cause a catastrophe. That is the central message in a battery of recommendations issued April 8 by ...

"This is a dangerous precedent," says Jim Hall, former Safety Board chairman By appointing the team to investigate the fatal Feb. 1 crash of the space shuttle Columbia, the action of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is analogous to an airline appointing the panel ...