The Invisible Crew What Happens While You Sip Your Coffee An aircraft turnaround is a choreographed ballet performed in a hurricane. Look out your window the next time your plane pulls up to the gate. In the next 25 to 35 minutes (the standard aircraft turnaround for low-cost carriers), a small group of men and …
BATTERY SAFETY IN THE CABIN Why lithium battery fires in the aircraft cabin are dangerous and why you should stay informed. A small power bank, a loose battery or a damaged phone – ordinary items we carry every day – can suddenly become a serious hazard at 35,000 feet. Lithium-ion batteries store a lot of …
AI-generated illustration, not an actual photo Why Assertive Support Process Training Matters Crew Resource Management (CRM) has long been recognized as a cornerstone of safe flight operations. A key element of CRM is the Assertive Support Process (ASP), which empowers first officers to speak up and take decisive action when they perceive danger. Recent reports …
Qantas Boeing 737 Took Off With “51 Passengers Missing” The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) recently revealed an unusual but important safety incident involving a Qantas Boeing 737-800 on December 1, 2024. The aircraft departed even though 51 passengers were mistakenly marked as “not onboard” on the load sheet due to a simple data-entry error …
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Consequences of a Passenger causing a lithium battery fire. A doctor shared a video of a lithium battery fire inside an aircraft cabin and asked me about the consequences for the passenger who caused the fire. Indeed, an Air China flight bound for Seoul was forced to make an emergency landing in Shanghai on Saturday, …
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Pilots Ejecting from a Hornet – an illustration The Marvel of the Ejection Seat The crash of a Royal Malaysian Air Force F/A-18D Hornet during take-off on 21st August 2025 once again reminded us of a remarkable piece of engineering that has saved thousands of pilots worldwide – the ejection seat. In this case, the …
Pre-Flight Checklist Before you board your flight, something remarkable happens behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed. While you get ready to embark on your journey, pilots and engineers are hard at work performing a crucial set of procedures that is second nature to them: the pre-flight check. Preparation Before Flight Pre-flight checks are a …
Is there any reason not to fly on the Boeing 737 given its safety concerns? I recently returned from a visit to the world-famous Three Gorges Dam and a Yangtze River cruise in Chongqing, China, flying aboard a Boeing 737-800 despite lingering safety concerns associated with some Boeing planes. The most recent incident of a …
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Airport Security at work during a bomb threat. Why bomb hoaxes are always taken seriously? Airlines treat bomb hoaxes as serious threats primarily for the safety of those onboard. Regardless of whether it is a hoax, every reported threat must be handled as credible until proven otherwise. This precaution ensures the security of passengers and …
Air Crash Investigators at Work Air crash investigation – Elmina air crash cause revealed. There are some air crash investigations that have remained unsolved, The most notable one is Malaysia Airlines MH370. On March 8, 2014, MH370 vanished from radar less than an hour after take-off. Despite extensive search efforts, only a few debris pieces …
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Effects of CrowdStrike Global IT Outage Is it safe to fly during the CrowdStrike outage? CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect, prevent, and respond to various cyber threats. However, on July 19, 2024, it deployed a faulty update that caused a worldwide IT outage, significantly affecting, amongst …
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Two-pilot crew in the Boeing 787 cockpit Image: 123RF Why do airlines have multiple pilots on a flight? The first airline, an ancestor of British Airways formed in 1916, used former military planes and had only one pilot and could carry two passengers. The FAA today requires two pilots for aircraft that exceed 12,500 pounds. …
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Air Nippon Airways B787 at Haneda Airport Photo credit: Masahiro TAKAGI (http://tinyurl.com/39s473xc) On January 17, 2024, a distressing incident happened aboard a Boeing 787 en route from Tokyo to Seattle as a 55-year-old American passenger displayed unruly behavior, biting a flight attendant’s arm. The disruptive conduct prompted the captain to make the unusual decision to …
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A Gaping Hole on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 Photo credit: RickyCourtney (http://tinyurl.com/5623bj22) How fortunate were the passengers and crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that the door blew out at a lower altitude rather than during cruising! It was indeed lucky that the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 was still climbing at around 16,000 …
Japan Airlines Flight 516 wreckage at Haneda Airport Photo Credit: Makochan12.9 (http://tinyurl.com/mry28x6h) Learning from the Japan Airlines Flight 516 Crash The recent crash involving Japan Airlines Flight 516 at Haneda Airport serves as a lesson not all agrees in the past, that one should leave all belongings behind during an emergency evacuation. On that fateful …
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Boeing 737-200 Aloha Flight 243 showing significant structural failure. Image source: ResearchGate (http://tinyurl.com/mrys9sna) How long do airliners typically last? Are they ever declared ‘too old’? Commercial airliners typically have a lifespan ranging from 20 to 30 years. In reality, a plane’s age isn’t measured in years but rather in pressurization cycles. The pressurization process, essential …
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Alaskan Airlines Embraer 175 Photo credit (https://tinyurl.com/22eaedpp) What could drive an off-duty pilot to sabotage the Alaskan Airlines plane’s engines? On October 22, 2023, a disturbing incident happened on an Embraer 175 flight from Everett to San Francisco. An off-duty pilot occupying the jump seat attempted to shutdown both its engines. This unusual incident …
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An Airbus A330 Image source: 123RF Why are airlines seeing an increase in unruly passenger behavior? With the ongoing recovery of air travel from the pandemic, the aviation industry has been grappling with bad behaviors by some airline passengers. While these incidents have yet to reach an alarming scale, the social media and instantaneous information …
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An Australian GAF Nomad Photo credit: Bidgee Why is it crucial for pilots to know the weight and balance of a loaded plane before take-off? Ensuring that an aircraft stays within its weight and balance limits is of utmost importance for pilots before commencing a flight. If there is too much weight towards the back …
Photo credit: BobMil42 An Airbus Fuel Dumping in progress Have you ever wondered why pilots sometimes take longer to land even when there’s a technical problem? Recently, an unhappy passenger on an Airbus A320 flight from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur was left frustrated when the captain decided to fly for about three hours before …