LATAM LA880 Following last week’s in-flight upset that left 50 passengers injured, focus is now on a switch located on the back of the pilot’s seat. Read more below👇🏼

FOD In more Boeing and United woes (seriously getting tired of reporting on both of these companies every week!😩) a United 737 arrived at gate missing a panel. United states that crew had no indication that it was missing in flight and airport ops did a thorough search for debris.

read more here

WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS Does it feel like there’s a lot of bad news about aviation lately? Boeing this. United that. I’m convinced that incident frequency isn’t actually any higher but we’re just hearing about it more. Wait until the news cycle changes and this will all blow over…

…at least thats what they’re saying in Boeing and United boardrooms

BOEING WHISTLE BLOWER Talking about the news cycle and how the media can glob onto a story… a whistle blower in a Boeing lawsuit has turned up dead after giving a deposition. Normally this wouldn’t get attention but all of a sudden this is front page news. Immediately everyone is thinking of their favourite corporate-espionage-spy-thriller movie where the whistleblower gets killed by the company.
Turns out that’s not the case.

RCAF RETIRES THE HAWK Canada has retired the Hawk trainer and ceased fixed-wing jet pilot training in Canada for the foreseeable future. We’ve got more on this coming later in the week.

I found this on Reddit. Not even sure what to say about it other than it’s awesome.

_{(https://www.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/1bhmjlq/f16_with_a_camel_1930x7361/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)}

Check out this crosswind landing:

…think the pilot should update the number in their logs under ‘demonstrated xw component’?🤣

Although I did bounce a landing pretty hard it’s been a (thankfully) pretty quiet week for aviation incidents. That said, I wanted to explore the LATAM flight LA800 that had 50 injuries upon landing in Auckland, NZ. (details here: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/354285 )

You’ve no doubt heard the story in the media: a flight from Syd, AUS to Auckland, NZ had an inflight upset where 50 passengers were injured.

Investigators are focussing on the pilot’s seat as a root cause of the upset. To allow the pilot to get in and out, these seats are electronically actuated via a switch. Apparently a flight attendant inadvertently bumped a rocker switch pushing the pilot’s seat into the yoke pitching the aircraft down. I’ll be looking out for the final incident report— I would love to hear those cockpit voice recorders!

This is a good illustration of the importance of the pilot’s seat in an aircraft. Something so innocuous as a seat can turn deadly. This is why Cessna seat rails have AD’s on them and it’s an inspection item in your annual:

This just goes to show: If it can happen on the little planes, it can happen on the big planes too.

Boeing has released a notice to operators to inspect the rocker switch and cover.

Here you can see the subject switch in action:

If this is indeed what occurred, it doesn’t explain the pilot coming out and telling passengers “my screens went blank”. I’m still dubious on this story for two reasons:

There is a cutout in the pilots seat so it doesn’t bump the yoke.

Un-commanded pitch shouldn’t do anything to the instruments “causing the screens to go blank”.

No doubt there will be more to come…

This week’s tech has to go to SpaceX’s launch of Starship. I know this is a stretch for aviation newsletter but it’s too cool not to share…plus it transited through the atmosphere so it counts right?? This was the largest object put into space (except the ISS which was flown up piece by piece).

…maybe we’ll be piloting to Mars sooner than we think?

One of my bucket list items is to see a launch from a plane. Here’s what it looks like:

…and from a passenger jet:

Ever wondered what all these aviation incidents mean for companies? Here’s the stock graph for Boeing:

On Jan. 5 was the Alaska Airlines ‘door plug’ incident. At the time current stock price was $249 giving the company a market cap of $151.7 Billion.

The Alaska Airways incident happened on a Friday and by Monday’s market close the market cap was down $12 Billion to $139.5B

Fast forward to today and you can see the sell off has continued. Stock price as of today is $180 giving the company a market cap of $110.3 Billion. Thats a difference of $68 per share and a decrease in $41.4 Billion

Ouch!

Keep an eye on this space as there is more company and business reporting coming down the pipe!

EVERYTHING BEFORE BUT IS BULLS#!T… I don’t want to propagate Russian propaganda BUT…

Check out Vlad ✌🏼”flying”✌🏼 this Tu-127 bomber:

This past week Vladimir Putin “✌🏼won✌🏼” the “✌🏼election✌🏼” that was just held in Russia. This made me think back to a few weeks ago when this propaganda video came out. Vlad is flying in a Tu-127 bomber— Russia’s equivalent to the B-1: Supersonic and nuclear capable.

Note the blurred out panels in the vid? It’s not to hide the airspeed….

Apparently some have undergone an extensive avionics upgrade in recent years replacing their steam gauges. This was all before sanctions against Russia took effect.

Also, while we’re on the subject:

Check out these shots of them inside the hangar.

They’re a beauty bird to be sure but I’d still take a B-1 over it any day. (and if I was president as if I wouldn’t command my air force to take me for supersonic joy-rides😜)

I’ve just finished “Master’s of the Air” on AppleTV this past weekend. Have you been watching it? There are some crazy stories told throughout the series. I won’t spoil anything but it’s sent me down a rabbit hole on B17’s and WWII bombers… expect some cool stuff related to this coming shortly.

_{Just don’t think about this while on short final…}

I saw this on Twitter / X and giggled. Very timely with all the things going on at Boeing.

I snapped this shot last Thursday on my first flight back after a winter break. Flying here has been on my list for a long time and was amazing to finally get up there!