Free Republic

"The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to FOX CT News Thursday they are investigating the use of a drone at a Hartford fatal crash scene Saturday. Questions about officer safety and public privacy are emerging now after the drone was spotted above a fatal car crash on Main Street. FOX CT was the only media organization to obtain the official Hartford Police Department incident report Thursday, detailing the chain of events. According to the report, officers spotted a drone flying over the scene of the crash, in which the bodies were still in the car."

The Lakemaid micro brewery started delivering beer to ice fishers using drones, at least until the FAA coldly shut their operation down. The FAA is currently reviewing their policies. According to the beer company’s president, Jack Supple, “They think it’s a great idea, though they’re telling me to stop.”

The Federal Aviation Administration will authorize test sites for drone aircraft in upstate New York, New Jersey and at least eight other states, the agency said on Monday, but integrating the aircraft into the nation’s airspace, set by Congress for 2015, will be phased in gradually. The agency picked six institutions to operate test locations, which will explore how to set safety standards, how to train and certify their ground-based pilots, how to ensure that the aircraft will operate safely even if they lose their radio links with the ground and, most of all, how to replace the traditional method...

Authorities struggled to explain how a small plane crashed at an international airport, erupted in fire, but evidently went unnoticed for hours. The incident occurred early Tuesday in Nashville. But exactly what time remains a mystery.

Nearly 3,000 aviation safety inspectors are being furloughed by the Federal Aviation Administration as part of the government shutdown, the union representing the inspectors said Monday. The inspectors check to make sure airlines are maintaining their planes safely, conduct inspections at airports of planes and pilots, and visit domestic and foreign repair stations where airlines send planes for major overhauls, among other safety jobs, said Kori Blalock Keller, a spokeswoman for the union, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists. …

On board flight out of #DCA. Still on runway. Flight crew just told us "all planes have been grounded indefinitely." No reason given.@wusa9

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S....

Here are some really good photos of the crashed Boeing 777 known as Asiana Flight 214.These include pics of the interior, exterior, landing gear, engines, and removal and loading process.

FAA Administrator Will Not Be Attending The Show FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will not be attending Oshkosh this year. And while he had a previous family engagement made months in advance, it is at the very least unfortunate timing given the ultimatum handed to EAA over air traffic control services for the show.

As Professor Jacobson’s recent pictorial essay noted, there is something for both the left and right to hate about the Obama Administration’s use of drones. As the co-founder of San Diego’s first Tea Party group, I love the grassroots initiative displayed by the citizens of one Colorado town to address the concerns Americans have over the use of these aerial vehicles over their skies. They propose a new type of hunting license that combines free market savvy while targeting statist government tactics. The small town of Deer Trail, Colo. is considering a bold move. The town board will be voting...

WASHINGTON — People who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday.

After I retired from UAL as a Standards Captain on the -400, I got a job as a simulator instructor working for Alteon (a Boeing subsidiary) at Asiana. When I first got there, I was shocked and surprised by the lack of basic piloting skills shown by most of the pilots. It is not a normal situation with normal progression from new hire, right seat, left seat taking a decade or two. One big difference is that ex-Military pilots are given super-seniority and progress to the left seat much faster. Compared to the US, they also upgrade fairly rapidly because...

U.S. authorities couldn’t perform drug or alcohol tests on the four pilots who were aboard Asiana Flight 214 when it crashed at San Francisco International Airport — a lapse that will complicate efforts to figure out why they were seemingly unaware that the plane was coming in too slowly and too low. Those were the latest revelations Tuesday from National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Debbie Hersman, who said her agency and the Federal Aviation Administration couldn’t legally requirethe crew of the South Korea-based airline to submit to testing after the crash. That decision is left to the airline’s home country....

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday said it was making final a rule that says all commercial airline pilots hired by U.S. carriers will be required to have at least 1,500 hours of flight time. The Air Line Pilots Association, which praised the new rule, said it goes into effect Aug. 1. The FAA, in announcing that the rule will be published soon, said the new requirements were adopted in reaction to the crash of a Colgan Air airplane near Buffalo, N.Y., in 2009, in which both the captain and first officer were relatively inexperienced.

Asiana Airlines said Monday that the pilot in control of the Boeing 777 that crashed in San Francisco Saturday had little experience flying that type of plane and was landing one for the first time at that airport. Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin told the Associated Press Monday that Lee Gang-guk was trying to get used to the 777 during Saturday's crash landing. She says the pilot had nearly 10,000 hours flying other planes, including the Boeing 747, but had only 43 hours on the 777. Hyomin told Reuters that co-pilot Lee Jeong-min has 3,220 hours of flying experience with the...

A navigation system that helps pilots make safe descents was turned off at San Francisco airport on Saturday when a South Korean airliner crashed and burned after undershooting the runway ... The system, called Glide Path, is meant to help planes land in bad weather. It was clear and sunny, with light winds, when Asiana ... San Francisco International has turned off the system for nearly the entire summer on the runway where the Asiana flight crashed, according to a notice from the airport on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site

LiveATC.net has captured the final approach of Asiana Airlines Flight 214. Flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea was on a direct flight and was landing on to runway 28L when it crashed at 11.36am. [photo] San Francisco Fire Department officials are reported to have confirmed fatalities in the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash. Local news media KTVU has reported that two passengers were killed and 61 injured. [photo] Flightglobal.com reports that the 2006-registered aircraft HL7742 had accumulated 35,700h on 5,185 cycles at 31 March. The 777-200ER, one of 12 in the Asiana fleet, was powered by the Pratt & Whitney...

In the last few weeks there have been widely circulated reports about law-abiding pilots being confronted by heavily armed local cops and federal Customs and Border Protection agents who appear to act as if they have absolute authority to search and interrogate pilots and passengers. "At least 12 of our members have been stopped and had their plane searched by CBP for absolutely no reason at all," said AOPA spokesman Steve Hedges. "We've asked CBP for documents related to the searches, filing a Freedom of Information Act to get it, but so far they have been unresponsive." As always, it's...

One clue that it might be, the TSA refuses to publish his name. But if you’ve been through any airport lately, you’ll notice an unusually high number of Muslim TSA agents, no doubt an Obama-sponsored affirmative action program for third world Muslims.

AirVenture is not just a big deal to the aviation community, or even the city of Oshkosh, WI. Estimates are that the week-long "Worlds Greatest Aviation Celebration" has a $110 million economic impact on the state. So when the FAA demanded that EAA pony up about a half million dollars to pay for air traffic controllers to work the show, it got the attention of the state's two U.S. Senators.