Today a French court of appeals reversed the conviction for criminal manslaughter against the Continental Airlines mechanic involved in the Air France Concorde crash.
That brings the criminal proceedings to a close 12 years after the airliner went down. I wrote here that the proceedings would do nothing for the families. To the extent that the
The Montreal Convention requires airlines to compensate international travelers who are injured as a result of an “accident.” If the passenger is killed, the Montreal Convention requires the airline to compensate the family members. But the Convention considers neither an airliner’s pilots nor its flight attendants to be “passengers.” Thus, crew members’ claims (or the
The owner of the Glasair III had finished painting the aircraft just before the fatal flight that killed him and his passenger near Byron, according to his ex-wife.
[Behne] had just finished painting the plane at his private airstrip when he and a friend went on the ill-fated flight. "He wanted to get it up and
In July, aviation lawyers Terry O’Reilly and James P. Collins were billing their firm, O’Reilly & Collins, as “the premier trial law firm in Northern California.” They claimed the firm had the financial resources to take on any fight, and that it was “one of the most successful plaintiff’s trial law firms in the
Bonanza N7472N crashed in December 2008 after its engine failed in flight. The engine failed because the crankshaft broke. The 25 year-old pilot was killed in the forced landing attempt. The pilot’s widow sued Continental Motors, alleging that the crankshaft, which was only 58 hours old, was defective. This week, the jury sided with Continental.
The plaintiff brought
Another Robinson R44 Helicopter rolled over and almost immediately caught fire. This time it was at Slaton Municipal Airport in Slaton, Texas. According to the Avalanche-Journal, the 
helicopter was engulfed in flames within 10 seconds of the helicopter rolling onto its side.
Fortunately, the pilot got out. But the R44 is racking up quite
The Cirrus SR22 crashed while landing at Falmouth Airpark in Massachusetts and immediately exploded in a fireball. One occupant died. Two others, however, survived, only to be badly burned in the post-crash fire.
Some say that, if properly designed, an aircraft should not burn as a result of an otherwise survivable impact. Technology that prevents
The NTSB has determined that the probable cause of the Galloping Ghost’s crash at last year’s Reno Air Races was flutter. No surprise there — I wrote about flutter within hours of the accident. At its presentation, the NTSB even showed the same NASA video demonstrating flutter that I had posted last year.
Flutter can
Why doesn’t the FAA do a better job of promoting aviation safety?
1. The FAA’s Inherent Conflict of Interest. When the FAA was created, it was charged with both
regulating aviation and promoting it. But most aviation regulations don’t promote aviation — they constrain it. The FAA’s inherent conflict of interest explains why the
The Yemenia Airline flight that crashed near Moroni three years ago didn’t involve an aircraft built in the U.S. The flight had no Americans on board, and no part of the flight was through U.S. airspace.
The families filed suit in California against International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), the Los Angeles company that