Fear of Landing

1. Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash

   The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner crash into a residential building, clearly meant to depict the fatal crash of Air India flight 171. The passenger flight crashed into the hostel block…

2. “A Group of Pissed Off Hornets”: An Instructor’s Snapchat Story of a Fatal Flight

   I don’t like to be negative about flight instructors; it’s a difficult job that usually pays badly and requires superhuman levels of focus and patience. I had two amazing instructors who very much loved flying and were excited to share their passion with me. But of course the fatal accidents caused by bad instructors are…

3. Pilots or Toilets: Is This Viral ATC Audio Real?

   There’s a YouTube video by ATC Audio making the rounds with a shocking title: She says Both Pilots INOPERATIVE. Real ATC Audio. The video claims to have real ATC audio of Tap Air Portugal flight TAP484H, a scheduled passenger flight from Lisbon, Portugal to Nice, France. The audio covers an aviation miscommunication which led to…

4. The Mystery of the Caged Tyres and the Porcupine Who Flew Home

   This photograph was posted to r/shittyaskflying, a subreddit dedicated to asking silly questions and giving silly answers. In this case, the photograph is enough to make one wonder what’s going on. The caption reads: Why all the wheel chocks? Strong winds? The answers are predictably hilarious. No_Mathematician2527 writes: Stops porcupine from chewing the tires. Why…

5. Best Speed across the Runway: VH-EWW at Gold Coast Airport

   On the 6th of February 2024, a student pilot and instructor met at Gold Coast Airport in Queensland for a dual training flight. The clear lesson learned that day was a common one: if the approach is not stabilised, go around! But to be fair, the instructor did go around, just …a little bit later…