Contributor - Safety

David Jack Kenny

<h2>Preliminary Reports</h2>
<h3>Vectoring Delay Preceded Double Flameout</h3>
<h4>Textron Aviation Cessna 680A Citation Latitude, June 16, 2026, Laredo, Texas</h4>
<p>After declaring an emergency in response to a cascading series of equipment failures, the crew of a NetJets flight from San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, to Austin, Texas, requested a visual approach with a five-mile final to Runway 36L at Laredo International Airport (KLRD). Believing the jet’s altitude made that infeasible, the Houston Center controllers instead vectored the airplane through a right 270-degree turn to set up a 14-mile final to the same runway.</p>
<p>One passenger was killed, the pilot was seriously injured, and the first officer and the other three passengers all suffered minor injuries after both engines flamed out on short final, forcing the crew to attempt an emergency landing in the northbound lanes of the Bob Bullock Loop. The airplane sheared off several light poles and struck a vehicle, causing minor injuries to an occupant, and rolled onto its right side about one mile southeast of the airport. Footage from security and doorbell cameras showed fire flaring around the airplane twice prior to touchdown.</p>
<p>The first abnormal indication was “a low frequency vibration and humming noise” that was steady during the initial climb and became intermittent afterward. As the crew discussed it with the company’s flight operations duty manager and a maintenance controller, the crew alerting system (CAS) showed a “BOTH ON ADC1” message referring to the airplane’s air data computers, leading the maintenance controller to suggest that the vibration might have come from an avionics cooling fan in the forward instrument panel. No abnormal indications appeared on the system synoptics pages, and after the crew cleared the CAS message, it was jointly concluded that the flight could safely continue to Austin.</p>
<p>However, as the aircraft approached the U.S.-Mexico border, the CAS displayed five warnings over the course of 15 minutes, including “FUEL BOOST PUMP ON R,” “FUEL PRESS LOW R,” and finally “FUEL LEVEL LOW R.” The crew declared an emergency and were handed off to the Houston ARTCC, which provided radar vectors to KLRD.</p>
<p>The jet eventually came to rest “straddling the right-hand side of an overpass.” With the assistance of motorists, the surviving occupants evacuated the wreckage through the main cabin door. Investigators subsequently found screws missing from the outer housing of the right engine’s starter/generator, which had been operated for 1,142.8 hours of its 1,200-hour overhaul schedule; on disassembly, its shaft was found bent, the cooling fan was fractured, and fan blades and bearing balls were found inside. The right engine’s fuel pressure switch was separated from the fuel tube, which was fractured adjacent to the weld for the pressure switch attachment tube.</p>
<h3>Engine Failure Followed Extended ‘Uncoordinated Flight’</h3>
<h4>Daher-Socata TBM 850, June 26, 2026, Erickson, Manitoba, Canada</h4>
<p>During an IFR flight from The Pas Airport (CYQD) to Brandon Municipal Airport (CYBR), both in Manitoba, the single-engine turboprop suffered a complete loss of engine power while descending through 13,000 feet. After unsuccessfully trying to restart it, the pilot attempted to glide to Erickson Municipal Aerodrome (CKQ6) but was forced to make an emergency landing on Provincial Trunk Highway 45. One of the three passengers was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries after the airplane departed from the paved road and came to rest in a ditch.</p>
<p>The Transportation Safety Board’s (TSB) initial review of flight data suggested that “the aircraft was flying uncoordinated for an extended duration prior to the engine failure.” The TBM 850’s flight manual warns against uncoordinated flight lasting longer than 30 seconds, which has been known to cause fuel starvation due to unporting of the fuel pickups. The TSB’s preliminary report did not cite any possible explanations for the uncoordinated flight.</p>
<h3>Evidence of Bird Strike in Sightseeing Helicopter Break-up</h3>
<h4>Bell 206L-4, April 11, 2025, Hudson River/Jersey City, New Jersey</h4>
<p>A detailed report from the Feather Identification Lab of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History describes definitive traces of three large bird species that were found on fragments of the wreckage, corroborating surveillance camera and witness accounts of flocks of birds in the vicinity at the time of the accident.</p>
<p>The pilot and all five passengers were killed when the aircraft broke up over the Hudson River during the 790-hour commercial pilot’s eighth sightseeing flight of the day. Surveillance camera recordings supported witness statements describing both the main rotor and tail boom separating from the fuselage.</p>
<p>The report released as part of the NTSB’s investigation docket states that material from Brant and Canada geese was identified on the left side of the helicopter, including one rotor blade and both horizontal and vertical stabilizers. Only Canada goose remains were identified on the right horizontal stabilizer. Genetic analysis showed that both male and female individuals struck the left side, while only female DNA was obtained from the Canada goose remains on the right. Wreckage from the left side also included traces of one or more female great black-backed gulls. Large populations of all three species were documented around the Hudson River in April 2025.</p>
<p>Taken together with the known habits of these species, the distribution of the biological material led the Smithsonian’s expert to suggest that a mixed flock of Brant and Canada geese struck the main rotor and horizontal stabilizer, while the gull was hit by flying debris from the helicopter’s tail.</p>
<h2>Final Reports</h2>
<h3>Control Interference Ruled Out in Fatal Autorotation Accident</h3>
<h4>Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, July 30, 2024, near Killucan, County Westmeath, Ireland</h4>
<p>Earlier instances in which a headset control box restricted movement of Bell 505 cyclic controls led the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) to evaluate the possibility that it contributed to the loss of control in the sixth of a series of practice autorotations conducted during type-rating training for the helicopter’s new owner. The 105-hour student, who had passed the practical test for his private pilot license five days earlier, and the 5,253-hour contract instructor were both killed after the helicopter rebounded from a farm field and crashed into an agricultural building. However, examination of the site found no evidence of damage to either a headset control box or either cyclic lever, and data downloaded from the Garmin avionics was consistent with free movement of the flight controls.</p>
<p>Downloaded flight data indicated that roughly 45 seconds into the sixth autorotation, following what appeared to be a series of S-turns, the helicopter began yawing to the left at about 700 feet. Main rotor rpm and airspeed remained stable at 102% and 70 knots, respectively, while its descent rate increased to 2,500 fpm with the collective fully down. The rate of yaw reached 30 degrees per second before the helicopter rolled right and entered a low-g condition, descending at 3,200 fpm, which increased to 3,900 fpm during a series of increasingly rapid and extreme attitude excursions and a right bank of 95 degrees. The AAIU ultimately attributed the accident to the instructor’s failure to intervene before the helicopter’s attitude became unrecoverable.</p>
<h3>‘Extreme’ Rainfall Cited in Landing Excursion</h3>
<h4>Gulfstream G600, May 27, 2026, Birmingham, Alabama</h4>
<p>A loss of forward visibility in heavy rain during the landing flare led to the twin--engine business jet drifting off the right side of the runway onto the grass. “The pilots applied left control inputs,” causing the airplane to pivot 70 degrees and come to rest on the runway “oriented nearly perpendicular to their approach path.” The right wing sustained substantial damage, but there were no injuries to either pilot or any of the 12 passengers.</p>
<p>The Part 91 corporate flight from Kerry, Ireland (EIKY), flew the ILS approach to Runway 24 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (KBHM) in conditions that included three-quarters-of-a-mile visibility in heavy rain, thunderstorms, and mist. A heavy rain cell had been reported over the runway, and the pilots had observed the precipitation echoes on the ship’s weather radar. The captain subsequently said, “We didn’t like the looks of the radar return; however, there were no indications of shear and the two aircraft ahead of us reported no issues.” The two airline transport pilots had more than 21,140 combined hours of flight experience, including more than 1,200 total hours in type.&nbsp;</p>


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