The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a $550,000 civil penalty against Executive Airlines, Inc., of San Juan, P.R., for allegedly operating two ATR-72 twin turboprop planes when they were not in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations. The FAA alleges Executive Airlines, a subsidiary of AMR Corporation, failed to complete required periodic, time-specific inspections of [...]

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident involving a Southwest Airlines airplane that was requested to veer off course by Air Traffic Control to view into the cockpit of a general aviation airplane that had been out of radio communication. On Sunday, March 27, 2011, Southwest Airlines flight 821 – a Boeing 737 – was requested [...]

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Works & Transport released their investigation progress report regarding the January 2010 fatal accident involving a Ethiopian Flight 409 off the coast of Beirut. On January 25, 2010 a Boeing 737-8AS(WL) passenger jet, registered ET-ANB, was destroyed in an accident 6 km southwest off Beirut International Airport (BEY), Lebanon. All 82 [...]

The U.K. CAA launched a task force initiative in June 2009 to address the seven top safety risks. The Paper pubsihed by the CAA consolidates the findings and recommendations of the task forces into one document. The ‘Significant Seven’ safety risks cover: loss of control; runway overrun or excursion; controlled flight into terrain (CFIT); runway [...]

On September 7, 2010 and Alrosa Tupolev 154M operated on a flight from Polyarnyj Airport (PYJ), Russia to Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME). At an altitude of 10,600m in the region of town of Usinsk the Tu-154 lost all of its electrical systems including radio and navigation systems, flaps and fuel pumps. After emergency decent below cloud [...]

An air traffic controller at Washington-Ronald Reagan National Airport has been suspended after reportedly falling asleep while on duty. Two aircraft landed unaided. In the incident on March 23, two flights were involved. The first flight, American flight AA1012 arrived about midnight after a flight from Miami. The crew had to circle the airport because the [...]

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published a proposal to update the Certification Specifications for large aeroplanes and turbine engines for flights in icing conditions. The proposed Certification Specifications update aim at better protecting large aeroplanes and turbine engines when flying in atmospheric icing conditions.  Icing environments such as freezing rain and freezing drizzle (Supercooled [...]

The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation plans to review the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) wildlife mitigation program. The number of aircraft collisions with wildlife has risen rapidly over the last two decades, creating a growing safety concern. Public interest in this program has increased due to recent aviation bird strikes.  These include [...]

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency is considering to ground all Tupolev 154M aircraft by July 2011 if certain modifications are not made. The Agency reported 10 cases of power supply failure of, seven of which were due to battery overheating. Cases of fuel system malfunction were also noted. The manufacturer should issue mandatory changes to [...]

The U.S. NTSB recommends the FAA to issue an airworthiness directive to require that all Cessna 560XL operators comply with Cessna service letter 560XL-53-08, which asks operators to drill a drain hole in the bulkhead. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)  issued this recommendation in the light of the investigation of three incidents involving Cessna 560XL Citation Excel [...]