#aviation-safety

#aviation-safety

It's still "too early" to draw conclusions about the cause of the Delta Air Lines plane crash at Toronto's Pearson airport, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Thursday in an update on its investigation as the one-year anniversary of the incident approaches. The safety board said it's still working on its final report, and the work done so far includes a "comprehensive" metallurgical examination of the plane's landing gear and wing, as well as an analysis of flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

About 45 minutes prior to landing in Honolulu on Dec. 18, 2022, the pilots of Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35, a widebody Airbus A330, saw a white, plume-like cloud swiftly rising vertically ahead of them, caused by a storm cell. Moments later came a hard jolt. Then the airplane dropped rapidly, creating a brief free-falling sensation inside the cabin. Phones, water bottles, blankets and service carts lifted into the air. Passengers were affected as well, with some held down by a seatbelt while others rose upward.

The airspace over Los Angeles is among the most congested in the world, but the Hollywood Burbank Airport is uniquely situated, creating extremely tight parameters around the midsize airport.

Around 8:45 p.m. on Monday, British Airways Flight 274 lost a tire just as it was taking off from Harry Reid International Airport, FAA officials told SFGATE. The Airbus landed safely in London, and "the tire was retrieved from the LAS airfield," airport officials confirmed to SFGATE via email. "There were no reported injuries or damage to airport property." On Thursday, the same aircraft is slated to travel from London's Heathrow Airport to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Flight24 data shows.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued notices to airlines, urging them to exercise caution over Mexico and other Central American countries, as well as Ecuador and Colombia, due to military activities. On Friday, the FAA released a series of advisories that come amid an ongoing US military buildup in the Latin America region, including US military attacks on Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump's warning to Cuba and threats of strikes against drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia,

"What passengers often interpret as cabin hosts 'sitting on their hands' is actually a deliberate brace-ready position. Cabin hosts sit upright in the jump seat with feet flat on the floor and hands secured on their thighs or beneath the legs," Drossos says. "This posture stabilizes the body, minimizes the risk of injury during sudden movement or turbulence, and ensures hands are immediately available to respond if an evacuation or safety action is required."

The captain of the Alaska Airlines plane that lost a panel midflight is suing Boeing, accusing it of trying to "scapegoat" the pilots. Attorneys for Brandon Fisher filed the lawsuit last Tuesday in an Oregon court, asking for $10 million in damages. Back in January 2024, Flight 1282 took off from Portland, bound for Ontario, California. But at 16,000 feet, the Boeing 737 Max lost a door plug - a panel that covers a deactivated emergency exit.

Dyer told Space.com that solar radiation on the day of the flight was within normal levels and far too low to affect the aircraft. '[Cosmic rays] can interact with modern microelectronics and change the state of a circuit,' Dyer said. 'They can cause a simple bit flip, like a 0 to 1 or 1 to 0, messing up information and making things go wrong. 'They can even induce hardware failures when they generate a current in an electronic device and burn it out.'

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Emerson's lawyers said he had an unusual reaction to psilocybin, the active ingredient in the drug. He was left feeling detached from reality for several days, a condition known as Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder. Emerson "believed he was either trapped in a dream or already dead," his lawyers wrote in a sentencing memo filed Wednesday. They add that he didn't believe Flight 2059 was real, but he boarded because he believed it would help him wake up and see his family again.