Year: 2019

  • Boeing MAX Safety Report Widely Misunderstood

    Headlines about the recent NTSB Safety Recommendation Report on the 737 MAX design are focusing all attention on the report’s cover page. But is the report really about pilots reacting to emergencies in unexpected ways? I found the most relevant part of the report on page 5. This is where the NTSB described Boeing’s use…

  • Flight Themes in the Four Realms

    For a pop culture moment, let’s consider the mysterious flight elements of Disney’s movie from last winter, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. I say “mysterious” because there are some hidden clues as to why several flight-related themes appear, mostly very subtle, throughout the movie.  For the most part, there is no clear metaphor, no…

  • On the Ethiopian Crash Report

    The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 is certainly the most important event being discussed in the aviation industry today. Having read the just-released investigation report, I now see several pieces of new information that will profoundly change the direction of this discussion.  For my part, I am making an armchair analysis of a preliminary, though…