Articles Posted in Aviation Accidents

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has acknowledged errors by the U.S. airplane manufacturer as more than 170 jets have remained grounded for days in a row.

According to news reports, pressure has been mounting on Boeing and its subcontractor after a panel blew out leaving a gaping hole in an Alaska Airlines plane in early January 2024. Calhoun has told staff members that the company would ensure an accident like the mid-air Alaska Airlines panel blowout “can never happen again,” Reuters reported. Continue reading →

A small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood in Yorba Linda killing the pilot and four people in the home. According to news reports, the Cessna 414A went down the afternoon of Feb. 3. The twin-engine plane was seen disintegrating in the air and crashing into a two-story home in the 19000 block of Crestknoll Drive that went up in flames. Continue reading →

The commander of an Asiana jet, which crashed in July failed to respond to as many as four separate verbal warnings from a co-pilot that the jet was making its descent too quickly, The Wall Street Journal reports. A public hearing conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also provided other examples of missed signals, inadequate crew communication and confusion about automated thrust settings in the cockpit before the accident as the plane attempted to land at San Francisco International Airport. The jet, which had no mechanical problems, flew dangerous slow and low with the airport clearly in view before it crashed into a seawall. The crash killed three passengers and injured 180 others.
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Many survivors of the Asiana Airlines airplane crash in San Francisco have an unusual pattern of serious spinal cord injuries, which doctors say, show how severely and violently they were shaken in spite of wearing their seatbelts. According to an article in the USA Today, two people have been unable to move their legs. Many others have needed surgery to stabilize their spines so they can move. Several passengers have also sustained crushed vertebrae that compress the spinal cord and ligaments that have been so stretched and torn that they cannot hold neck and back joints in place.
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Brooke Baum, 33, of Newport Beach, died in a December 26, 2008 skydiving accident after her parachute failed to fully deploy during a jump at a popular skydiving center in Perris. According to this news report in The Orange County Register, Baum jumped out of an airplane at 12,500 feet above the Perris Valley Skydiving facility at Perris Valley Airport. Family members and friends said Baum was an experienced skydiver.

My heart goes out to the family of Brooke Baum for their tragic loss. I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who knew and loved this young woman. Please keep them in your prayers.

According to this newspaper report, Brooke Baum’s is the third accident involving skydivers since July and the fifth since March 2005 at this Perris skydiving facility. Baum’s friends, who were there with her at the time, are puzzled about why her parachute did not open. By the time the reserve chute opened, it was too late for Baum. Her friends also said she didn’t seem to have any medical condition and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the accident.
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Curtis Dale Cauthen, 31, was killed in a December 17, 2008 in a Santa Clarita helicopter accident. According to this KTLA news report, Cauthen, a mechanic for Swanson Aviation, was killed when a gust of wind caused a helicopter to blow over and spiral out of control. Cauthen, who was doing some work on the ground, was struck by one of the helicopter’s blades.

The helicopter was apparently contracted by Southern California Edison to string power lines between poles, Los Angeles County fire officials said. The helicopter’s pilot suffered minor injuries. The crash is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Cauthen’s employer, Swanson Aviation, is a sub-contractor working on Edison’s massive Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project.

I offer my deepest condolences to the family of Curtis Dale Cauthen, who was tragically killed on the job. Please keep this family in your prayers.
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The family of an Oceanside, California woman who fell to her death during an October 2007 hot air balloon accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has reached a $1.4 million settlement with the company that managed the balloon rides. According to an Associated Press news report, 60-year-old Rosemary Wooley Phillips fell through a hole in the balloon’s gondola when the balloon’s pilot became entangled in power lines.

The accident happened immediately after the balloon’s pilot became distracted watching another hot air balloon crash into a house, an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed months after the accident. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by Phillips’ sister, named the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta pilot Tom Reyes and his two employers; Albuquerque based Star Trail Inc. and Rainbow Ryders. Four other passengers in the balloon, including Phillips’ partner Cheri Dias, suffered minor injuries. The $1.4 million was apparently the limit of what the Fiesta was insured to cover and was shared between Dias, Phillips’ two siblings and another friend, who was injured in the crash as well.
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Officials have identified the four people who died in the December 8, 2008 F-18 plane crash in San Diego as Young Mi Yoon, 36; her two daughters 15-month-old Grace and 2-month-old Rachel and mother 60-year-old Suk Im Kim. The only surviving member of the family is Yoon’s husband, Dong Yun Yoon, who was at work when the accident happened. Our source for this blog is this Associated Press news report.

One day after the heartbreaking tragedy that wiped out his entire family, Yoon held a press conference feet away from his destroyed home, asking people in the community for advice about what to do next. He asked guidance from people who have suffered “more terrible things.” The Associated Press article quoted Yoon as saying: “Please tell me how to do it. I don’t know what to do.”
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Three people are dead and one other is presumed dead after a U.S. Military jet crashed around noon on December 8, 2008 in University City, San Diego.
According to this news report in the San Diego Union-Tribune, a mother, her young child and the child’s grandmother died at 4416 Cather Avenue when the disabled F/A-18D Hornet crashed into the house in what is described as a “fiery explosion.”

A second child was missing and presumed dead before rescue personnel suspended their search at nightfall. None of the victims have been identified yet, but the newspaper describes the victims as a family of Korean immigrants.

My heart goes out to this beautiful family that perished as a result of this nightmarish aviation accident. I offer my deepest condolences to the father who was away from home at work when the accident occurred. Please keep this grieving man in your prayers.

The jet’s pilot, a student pilot at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, had apparently ejected safely and was listed in good condition at the San Diego Naval Medical Center.
He was en route from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln that was operating in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. He lost one engine over the ocean and the other failed over the neighborhood. The crash occurred less than a quarter mile from University City High School.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has agreed to pay $4.5 million to the only person who survived a mid-air collision of two helicopters at the Torrance Municipal Airport on Nov. 6 2003. According to a Sept. 23 article in the Daily Breeze, 27-year-old Gavin Heyworth, a former Marine, suffered severe injuries in the helicopter crash including two broken legs, a separated pelvis, spine fractures, brain hemorrhaging, collapsed lungs and broken ribs.

A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation blamed Heyworth for the crash, but a federal judge ruled that air traffic controller error, negligence and carelessness led to the catastrophic collision. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper also found the tower to be understaffed and that the air traffic controllers did not adequately communicate with one another when the air traffic in the area increased.
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