I’ve had days where departing to a patient from a busy airport in the middle of summer feels like you’re trying to thread a needle (while someone keeps nudging your elbow) 👀 The airspace is saturated, everyone’s talking, and you’re trying to focus on the next event. On days like Read more…
I still remember flipping my Night Vision Goggles down before departing an industrial site at 2 AM in the UK, knowing there was a wire right in front of us that we had carefully briefed beforehand 🔎 I knew it was there. But I still just couldn’t see it. Even Read more…
On the night of January 29, 2025, two professional crews flew in night VMC towards one of the most controlled pieces of airspace in the world 🌎 One was a CRJ700 inbound to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The other was a US Army Black Hawk on a routine NVG Read more…
There are accidents that are caused by very loud and obvious things: Mechanical failures, fire warnings, things that are obviously wrong 👀 Then there are accidents caused by sneaky threats that weren’t managed well enough. The Morecambe Bay crash is one of those. On the evening of 27 December 2006, Read more…
This accident still makes a lot of pilots uncomfortable. Not because it’s complicated, or hard to understand, but because it’s a scenario we’ve seen play out time and time again in the rotary industry… 💥 This wasn’t a technical issue. It was a perfectly serviceable helicopter, with an experienced pilot, Read more…
In this day and age of aviation, sudden structural failures are less common than they used to be, especially for fixed wing aircraft. So when structural failures do happen, like this engine separation that UPS flight 2976 experienced on 4 November 2025, they hit very hard 💥 We’re going to Read more…
Why do helicopters crash? 💥 Every year, EASA releases a great document that helps to answer this question, and shows what’s catching pilots out, what’s killing crew, breaking aircraft, and coming back to screw up flight safety across Europe 🇪🇺 It’s a goldmine of information, so we’re going to show Read more…
Helicopter flying can be extremely unforgiving. Things can unravel in seconds, sometimes in ways no simulator or checklist can fully prepare us for 👀 On August 28, 2023, an EC135 air medical helicopter operated by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office lifted from Pompano Beach Airpark on what should have been Read more…
You’re in the cruise, everything’s stable. No warnings, no anomalies: just the hum of whatever normal sounds like 🚁 Then, out of nowhere, there’s a burning smell, followed by a fire, smoke in the cockpit, and a collective that requires your full body weight to stay down, but the helicopter Read more…
We have two pilots in an AW139 helicopter, about to fly from a private site to Coventry in the U.K. The plan? A vertical departure ⬆️ The result? Total loss of the aircraft and everyone on board – less than a minute after takeoff 💥 So how does that happen? Read more…