Aviation Investigations Uncover the Full Story - Episode 334

Aviation Investigations Uncover the Full Story - Episode 334

What can NASA safety reports tell us about the state of aviation after the pandemic? In this episode of Flight Safety Detectives, former NTSB Board Member John Goglia and aviation safety analyst Todd Curtis dive into recent trends in NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), examining how reporting levels for Part 121 and Part 135 operators changed during and after the pandemic. John and Todd also discuss the fatal June 7, 2026 crash of a Gulfstream G200 in the Dominican Republic. They explore how the investigation may unfold under Dominican authorities and explain why the resources available to an investigative agency don't necessarily determine the quality of the final findings. The episode concludes with a deep dive into a 2023 fuel exhaustion accident involving a Cessna 172. After reviewing the NTSB Public Docket, John and Todd found critical background information that never made it into the final report. Their analysis highlights how additional details—including the pilot's recent passengers and the aircraft's possible weight at the time of the accident—can provide important context when evaluating pilot decisions and accident outcomes. Don't miss this detailed discussion of accident investigations, safety reporting trends, and the lessons hidden in the details of aviation accident records. Become a member for new episodes every week and join the conversation about improving aviation safety worldwide. Don’t miss what’s to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightSafetyDetectives], listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website [https://flightsafetydetectives.com].   Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program [https://www.youtube.com/@FlightSafetyDetectives/join] for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety. Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com [fsdsponsors@gmail.com].   Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Student Pilot Runs Out of Fuel - Episode 333

John Goglia and Todd Curtis examine an all-too-common aviation incident: fuel exhaustion.  Two pilots recently took off on a training flight that would start after midnight and end before dawn. They planned 10 takeoffs and landings at a towered airport, a 100-nautical-mile cross-country flight, refueling, and waiting until sunrise to practice additional maneuvers.  Unfortunately, they ran out of fuel short of the refueling stop and had to dodge wind turbines and power lines to safely land on a road. Because there were no damage or injuries, no report was published by the FAA or NTSB.  However, the incident was reported to the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). John and Todd use that information to examine what happened and point out that they may have created avoidable dangers by planning to perform a challenging set of tasks for a single flight.  This episode also demonstrates how to use the ASRS to learn from those who submit reports, including events that could have ended in disaster. This episode could help you avoid this and other common aviation safety issues. Don’t miss what’s to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightSafetyDetectives], listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website [https://flightsafetydetectives.com].   Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program [https://www.youtube.com/@FlightSafetyDetectives/join] for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety. Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com [fsdsponsors@gmail.com].   Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Real Time Research into Unapproved Plane Parts - Episode 332

Todd Curtis and John Goglia share their real time research into unapproved parts in aviation. They use the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) database to do their research.  See what they uncover as they investigate unapproved parts in aviation. They search reports from 1995 and later years to find instances of suspected unapproved or counterfeit parts.  Most of the five cases they dive into are found to be paperwork issues rather than actual fraudulent parts. John adds some historical context, discussing how events like Eastern Airlines going out of business and the U.S. leaving behind a substantial amount of aviation assets after the Vietnam war led to many undocumented parts and helicopter engines entering the global aviation market. Learn about the history and issues surrounding unapproved parts in aviation maintenance from two aviation safety insiders. Don’t miss what’s to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightSafetyDetectives], listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website [https://flightsafetydetectives.com].   Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program [https://www.youtube.com/@FlightSafetyDetectives/join] for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety. Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com [fsdsponsors@gmail.com].   Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can AI Improve Aviation Safety? - Episode 331

Can artificial intelligence (AI) make aviation safer? In this episode, Todd Curtis and John Goglia explore ways that AI tools are being used to analyze safety data, identify trends, and improve communication across the aviation industry. Todd shares a project that uses the AI platform Claude along with reports from NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) database to create a customized safety report modeled after the ASRS CALLBACK publication. The discussion highlights how AI can help aviation professionals uncover valuable insights from large volumes of safety data. Todd and John discuss how aviation professionals can get better results by understanding how to guide AI tools and evaluate their output. The conversation also explores how safety management system (SMS) managers can use AI to better understand organizational risks, identify emerging issues, and improve safety decision-making. Todd demonstrates how AI can transform written content into concise, media-ready sound bites and shares a downloadable resource that viewers can use to create their own custom audio clips. Whether you're an aviation professional, safety manager, mechanic, pilot, or simply interested in emerging technology, this episode offers practical examples of how AI may help shape the future of aviation safety. Also in this show, John calls out the disservice of incorrect information being shared by one commenter on the UPS crash in Louisville, Kentucky. A prominent aviation safety podcaster who is also an airline pilot repeatedly talks about the #2 engine being affected by foreign object digestion (FOD), a fact not directly supported by the NTSB preliminary report. Don’t miss what’s to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightSafetyDetectives], listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website [https://flightsafetydetectives.com].   Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program [https://www.youtube.com/@FlightSafetyDetectives/join] for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety. Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com [fsdsponsors@gmail.com].   Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

eVTOL Aircraft Face Critical Technical Challenges - Episode 329

New York City eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft test flights and global commercialization efforts are making headlines. Special guest Mike Borfitz, CEO of Kilroy Aviation and a safety certification engineer with more than 40 years of experience, explores critical technical challenges including battery limitations and software integration.  Mike, Todd Curtis, and John Goglia address regulatory hurdles, safety concerns, and urban integration challenges. They discuss the unrealistic market expectations being promoted by manufacturers.  Mike predicts that accidents involving these aircraft are inevitable. Ground-based air traffic management will be essential for safe operations in crowded urban airspace. Emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) transportation revolution will likely succeed, but not in the way some companies in this sector are promising. Don’t miss what’s to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightSafetyDetectives], listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website [https://flightsafetydetectives.com].   Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program [https://www.youtube.com/@FlightSafetyDetectives/join] for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety. Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com [fsdsponsors@gmail.com].   Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.