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A U.S. airliner nearly collided with a drone over Florida earlier this year, a federal official said, a near miss that highlights risks posed by the proliferation of unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies. A pilot of an American Airlines Group Inc. AAL +0.03% regional jet told officials that on March 22 he came dangerously close to a "small remotely piloted aircraft" about 2,300 feet above the ground near Tallahassee Regional Airport in Florida, said Jim Williams, head of the unmanned-aircraft office at the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr. Williams disclosed the incident publicly for the first time at a drone conference...

A 77-year-old civilian pilot who had flown planes since he was a teenager was killed when he crashed his biplane Sunday while performing a low-to-the-ground stunt maneuver during an air show at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, authorities said. Officials said Eddie Andreini of Half Moon Bay was piloting the Stearman biplane when it crashed in an open field away from spectators at 2:05 p.m. Black smoke rose from the wreckage as the tens of thousands of people who had flocked to the "Thunder Over Solano" show were evacuated from the base.

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas. The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep...

A marine salvage company has recovered the fuselage of a plane and the body of its pilot, who crashed into San Francisco Bay over the weekend after a midair collision. The body of the pilot could be seen in the wreckage of the Cessna 210, which plunged into the water on Sunday. Contra Costa County Sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee confirmed that the body was “clearly visible,” and he asked members of the media not to show images of the victim, whose name has not been released.

A small airplane heading back to South Dakota after a Texas cattle sale crashed into a wind farm in foggy weather, killing the pilot and three passengers. ... Similar conditions contributed to a 2008 crash in southeast Minnesota. Federal investigators concluded the pilot of a 1948 Cessna 140 lacked proper instrument training for the day's foul weather. The National Transportation Safety Board's probable cause report also noted the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane while maneuvering around a wind farm.

Mooney International Corporation is proud to present Planes of Fame Air Show 2014, May 3 & 4: "A Salute to the Mighty Eighth". This year’s airshow will feature over 40 historic aircraft, performing for your enjoyment as well as a salute to the 8th Air Force in WWII. We invite you to Airshow 2014 to celebrate the history and contributions of the men, women, and aircraft of the 8th Air Force. Performers include U.S.A.F. F-22 Raptor Demo Team ...

Full Title: El Al pilots forget to lower wheels on Heathrow landing Passenger jet averts disaster just 250 meters above runway when alarm alerts cockpit that landing gear not deployed ___________________________________ An El Al passenger jet came close to dangerously belly-flopping onto a runway recently after its pilots forgot to lower the plane’s landing gear. The incident took place as the 737 jet was preparing to land at London’s Heathrow Airport last month, according to reports released Thursday. As the plane descended to a height of about 250 meters above the runway a safety alarm went off in the cockpit...

-excerpt- ...non-U.S. citizens have registered 5,600 planes with the Federal Aviation Administration through trustees, concealing the owners' identities. -excerpt- Just five trustees accounted for 3,283 of the planes registered on behalf of non-U.S. citizens....

Capt. Gregory McWherter, executive officer of Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, was relieved of his duties by Vice Adm. William French, commander of Navy Installations Command. The move was made based on initial findings of an ongoing investigation into allegations of misconduct and an "inappropriate command climate" at the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, or Blue Angels, based at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.

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The Australian military vessel Ocean Shield, towing a sophisticated pinger locator lent by the U.S. Navy, reported Sunday morning that it had picked up a signal, said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is coordinating search efforts from Perth, Australia. That report comes on the heels of a Saturday night report from the Chinese ship Haixun 01 that it had detected pulse signals both Friday and Saturday at 37.5 mHz, the same frequency used by an airplane flight data recorder.

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co , the world's biggest airplane maker, on Friday said it had received a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to export certain spare parts for commercial aircraft to Iran under a temporary sanctions relief deal that began in January.

What can be done to save the Reno Air Races? This is the question posed to me by so many of the Air Racing fans. We know changes are being made – but – are they enough. Are these changes coming too late, what are the signs we should be looking for to see if the changes are working? ... Tell me why, the day after Steven Hinton won his 5th Championship he was not being interviewed on Good Morning America, Today and the Tonight Show? This young man has unprecedented achievements and no one knows his name. I’ve said...

A retired Marine with nearly two decades of aviation experience has stepped forward with a compelling theory about a mysterious plane that was spotted flying over Texas last month. On March 10, photographers Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett took pictures of three puzzling aircraft flying over Amarillo, and posted them online in hopes of identifying the planes. Retired-Marine James Vineyard has submitted one of the more interesting explanations, telling the Houston Chronicle he believes they are SR-72 Blackbirds - a spy plane that can cross the U.S. in less than an hour, unmanned.

In 1989, the Chinese Chengdu Aerospace Corporation unveiled a major upgrade for its locally-made F-7 jet fighter, a licensed copy of the classic Soviet MiG-21. The new F-7 variant moved the engine air intake from the nose tip to the sides of the fuselage, making room in the nose for a more powerful radar. Twenty-one years later, this upgrade—now named JF-17 Thunder—is flying combat missions with the Pakistani air force, so far its sole user. Further enhanced with a new wing, a cutting-edge intake design and a new, more powerful engine, the JF-17 is Pakistan’s most important front-line fighter—and a...

It's the type of safety alert that makes you chuckle and say, "Seriously, they need to be reminded of this?" Apparently, the National Transportation Safety Board thinks pilots do need to be reminded their job is to make it to the proper destination. So the NTSB has issued a safety alert warning pilots not to land at the wrong airport.

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is demanding Ukraine to refrain from irresponsible practices that are threatening the safety of civil aviation, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement published on Wednesday. Ukraine’s border control continues to deny Aeroflot crewmembers to leave their airplanes. “Such actions are not in line with international acts and conventions in following the demands for safe flights of international civilian aviation,” the statement reads.

IN an age of constant information, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has been dubbed the biggest mystery in aviation history. A plane of its size has never dropped out of the sky. Or has it? In 2003, a Boeing 727 jet also disappeared. It was the largest aircraft to ever vanish without a trace. This plane, like MH370, had all the mod cons and was fitted with GPS. A crew member looks out the windows from a Malaysian air force CN235 aircraft during a search and rescue operation to find the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Source: AFP At...

The search for Malaysian Airlines MH307 plane has been expanded to Sumatran waters, north of Straits of Malacca, as military radar may have detected the missing plane in the vicinity of Pulau Perak. A Berita Harian report today quoted the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) as saying the plane may have reversed course further than expected while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Air Force chief Rodzali Daud ( left ) is quoted as saying that based on military radar readings from its station in Butterworth, MH370 may have turned west after Kota Bahru and flew past the...

Reuters) - Officials investigating the disappearance of a Malaysian airliner with 239 people on board are narrowing the focus of their inquiries on the possibility that it disintegrated mid-flight, a senior source said on Sunday. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished after climbing to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in the early hours of Saturday. Search teams have not been able to make any confirmed discovery of wreckage in seas beneath the plane's flight path almost 48 hours after it took off. "The fact that we are unable to find any debris so far appears...