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Airline Shortcomings as an Indicator of Progress
Two U.S. airlines made headlines on Wednesday; Dallas based-Southwest Airlines generated ink when it reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that it failed to do required rudder inspections on...
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Ocean Search for MH 370 Lets Malaysia Overlook Clues on the Ground
9M-MRO in Los Angeles photo by Jay DavisThe adage that if you repeat a lie often enough people will start to believe it, can be appropriately applied to the search for answers to the disappearance of...
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MH 370 Report on Night of Errors Raises Questions About Competence
The story making headlines on the anniversary of the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 is the news that the battery for the locator beacon in the plane’s flight data recorder was not changed on...
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MH 17 Probe Divides At the Point of "Who Done It?"
Wreckage of 9M-MRD Dutch Safety Board photo The conclusion that Malaysia Flight 17 was likely downed by a missile that penetrated the cockpit as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014...
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Germanwings Pilots Likely Faced a "Get Down ASAP" Event
It is too early to say what caused Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 to crash into the mountains in the French Alps. But the actions of the crew in quickly bringing the Airbus A320 registration D-AIPX down...
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Why Listening to Germanwings CVR is Not So Simple
P {line-height: 22px; font-family: Georgia, Arial; text-indent: 0;} CVR as recovered from Germanwings flight BEA photoInvestigators looking to discover why Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 flew into a...
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You Call this an Investigation? Germanwings So Far Anything But Conclusive
The news coming from French prosecutor Brice Robin regarding Monday's crash of Germanwings Flight 9295 is shocking, but on what is it based? Surely Mr. Robin knows something he's not sharing with the...
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Attending Flight Training with Andreas Lubitz
Yes, I attended Lufthansa Flight Training school with Andreas Lubitz. Astute readers of Flying Lessons may remember that in the fall of 2010, I published here a series of posts about the week I spent...
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Germanwings "No Right to Rule Out Other Hypotheses"
BEA's chief Remi JoutyAs if awaking from a stunned stupor, (incapacitation with breathing perhaps?) the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, the French air safety investigatory authority, has suddenly...
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Federal Investigators Find Oversight Lacking in Air Ambulances
Air Methods helicopter prior to crash that killed 4 in 2011The attention of the flying public may be riveted to events like Malaysia 370 and Germanwings Flight 9525 but when it comes to hazards,...
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Suicidal/Homicidal Pilots and the Challenge of Trying to Fix Unknown Unknowns
Andreas Lubitz from FacebookThe chilling news that pilot Andreas Lubitz had already tried the controlled descent into terrain of an airliner prior to the successful crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 on...
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Drive in the Country or Tumble Through the Sky; Acrobatic Pilot Rob Holland's...
I made the one hour drive on the beautiful back roads of New England, rounding the curves and ascending the hills. Distracted by spring in full bloom, I struggled to concentrate on the road ahead. By...
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Lost and Confounded Until Hiker Finds Missing Plane
What forces of fate allow thousands of people to cross the same terrain without seeing the crashed airplane that John Weisheit discovered on May 20th? And what does his find tell us about the...
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Global News Events Play Out on World's Runways
Writing from Miami -- If you want to see the down-to-earth impact of world events there's no better place to be than Miami this week where the leaders of aviation are assembled for the International...
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Growth, Profitability and Timing Lifts Airline Industry
Tyler addresses the executives Photo by IATAWriting from Miami - It seems strange to me that under the guidance of the soft spoken and urbane Tony Tyler, the airline industry should be experiencing its...
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Monitoring the Well-Being of Passengers but Some Airline Workers Are on Their...
IATA boss Tony Tyler with the SkyZen appAirline executives meeting at the industry confab in Miami were pleased to be talking about a new app that coordinates with health monitoring programs for iPad,...
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Pirep and My-rep on Three Travel Products
When I travel I am often on my own so compact is best, especially since my Lenovo laptop and assorted techie accoutrement is one entire (albeit small) backpack unto itself. So I was delighted to find...
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Can This Airliner be Saved?
Photo by Brian WalkerArmchair airline pilots may be asking why the crew of Delta Air Lines Flight 159 from Detroit to Seoul opted to fly through a hail storm on June 16th, rather than insist on an...
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Pilot Punches Holes in Post on 747 Hail Damage
N671US in Shannon Photo courtesy Kevin CorryThe Boeing 747 taken out of the desert in Arizona to replace the Delta jumbo jet pelted by hail over China, has itself gone out of service, at least...
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Delta 747 Replacement Not Ready for Prime Time
N671US in Shannon days ago. Photo courtesy Kevin CorryThis just in: The Delta Air Lines Boeing 747 N664US which was heavily damaged by hail on a flight to Seoul Korea last month will return to the...
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