With the federally mandated retirement age looming for many pilots, some experts are predicting that the United States may be facing a pilot shortage soon. Thousands of new rules for pilots regarding training and rest are kicking in this year, so some say the shortage of pilots may be coming as early as 2013.  One of the new rules requires copilots to have as many flight hours as captains in the cockpit.  With the mandatory retirement age of 65 requiring … Read more…

A dramatic documentary follows an international team of experts as they re-create a plane crash was shown Sunday (Oct. 14) in a feature-length on the Discovery Channel. Elite pilots deliberately crash landed a 170-seat Boeing 727 jet in a remote Mexican desert to provide what they call a once-in-a-generation chance to study the mechanics of a plane crash in real time.  The purpose was to study the crashworthiness of the aircraft’s airframe and cabin, the new technologies of black boxes  … Read more…

    The headline said it all — “Chilling Account of Near-Miss, Close Call of Military Plane, American Airlines Jet Highlights Air Traffic Lapses.”  The Aug. 6, 2012 article by The Wall Street Journal reports of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report released last week revealing what the paper called “alarming details” about air traffic controller errors.      In particular, the NTSB released a report about the near mid-air collission between an American Airlines jet and a military cargo plane off the … Read more…

French officials confirmed that three Americans were killed in the southern town of Le Castellet when the private jet in which they were traveling crashed July 13, 2012, as it tried to land at the private airport there. The two men, aged 60 and 24, from Florida and a woman, 30, from New Jersey died in the twin-engine Gulfstream IV jet that Friday afternoon.  It was reported to be a windless day.  French officials reported to the media that it … Read more…

It is being reported that no one was killed in the Virginia Beach Navy jet crash that slammed into five apartment buildings in Virginia’s most populated city, and the mayor of Virginia Beach is calling it a “Good Friday Miracle.” More details are coming out in media reports about the difficult decisions the two pilots had to make as its F/A-18 Hornet reportedly malfunctioned while traveling at 170 miles per hours.  The two pilots ejected safely moments before the two-ton … Read more…

Seven people were injured, including two naval pilots, in a tragic fiery crash in Virginia Beach, Virginia. A Navy jet crashed into an apartment complex and exploded into flames, destroying three buildings and damaging two others, according to media reports. The two pilots reportedly ejected from the F/A 18 Hornet jet shortly before the crash at a low altitude. Witnesses said they observed fuel being dumped from the plane before it went down near the world’s largest naval air base, … Read more…

  A “catastrophic mechanical function” is what Navy Captain Mark Weisgerber told the press in Virginia Beach, Virginia, may be to blame for the tragic crash of a Navy jet into an apartment complex.  The skies in the area are a primary training ground for F18 pilots, Weisgerber told the media.   Seven people are reported to have been injured, including the two pilots, a Navy flight instructor and a student pilot who ejected from the plane shortly before the … Read more…

  Three people remain unaccounted for Saturday as rescue workers continue to search through the rubble of five apartment buildings from a Navy jet plane that crashed and erupted in flames around noon Friday, authorities report.   At least five people on the ground  reportedly were injured and the two pilots, a student pilot in the front and an instructor sitting in the back of the two-seater F/A 18 jet, also were taken to area hospitals.  The pilots ejected themselves … Read more…

       Information continues to be released regarding the Caribbean Airlines flight that crashed in Georgetown, Guyana. Yahoo News said that Devant Maharaj, the transportation minister in Trinidad, the last stop of the flight before it landed in Guyana, claimed that about 100 people received medical attention, with only four passengers needing to be hospitalized for serious injuries. CNN.com reported that most passengers suffered broken hands, ankles or head injuries. Authorities reportedly encountered difficulty in removing passengers from the plane wreckage … Read more…

USA Today reported that two single-engine planes collided in mid-air near Amber Lake, Alaska, on Saturday. One of the planes, a Cessna 180, crashed killing the four passengers on board, while the other plane, a Cessna 206, sustained serious damage but was able to make an emergency landing at Anchorage International Airport.   After initial reports indicated that at least two people were believed to have been killed in the accident, the Associated Press reported that four people were recovered … Read more…