NEWS: Major investigation finds Virgin Australia under-reported terrain warning incidents on its ATR fleet

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation has found Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) significantly under-reported occurrences of terrain warnings during flights operated by its fleet of ATR 72 turboprops. The descent profile of VH-FVR into Moranbah. (ATSB) The ATSB discovered the under-reporting while looking into an incident on May 13 2013, when multiple terrain…

NEWS Operating in the South Pacific

People who’ve never flown it have no idea how vast the Pacific Ocean is,” Kiwi Robin Leach told B&CA. “You will be over water for 12 hours jetting from Auckland to San Francisco. Going the other way [i.e., west], headwinds can be a factor, and today [in mid-January] the jetstream is running south with strong…

NEWS Michigan police add drones

I sure hope that MSP reports its activities to ATC: The Michigan State Police has a new eye in the sky as it begins using a drone to enhance law enforcement efforts. State police pilots provided media a demonstration of its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) — an Aeryon SkyRanger, more commonly called a drone —…