Free Republic

The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed Kobe Bryant and eight others was almost out of blinding clouds when he suddenly plunged and crashed into a Southern California hillside, investigators and aviation experts indicated. Ara Zobayan had told air traffic control he was climbing to 4,000 feet and he rose to 2,300 feet, according to an investigative update released Friday from the National Transportation Safety Board. The helicopter was just 100 feet from the cloud tops and conceivably would have broken through into clear air in a matter of seconds. Air traffic controllers had advised Zobayan that the...

Speed of over a hundred miles per hour on a curve caused a 2018 crash and fire in Florida that killed the teenage driver of a Tesla Model S and a passenger, federal investigators have concluded. The National Transportation Safety Board, in a report released Thursday, said the battery-powered car erupted in flames after colliding with a wall, trapping two 18-year-olds. Firefighters were unable to rescue the two despite putting out the blaze less than a minute after they arrived. Injuries from the fire that started in the car’s lithium-ion battery contributed to the two deaths, although the passenger had...

The plane [Pilatus PC-12]had embarked shortly before noon from Chamberlain, South Dakota, and crashed about a mile southwest of there, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined. Maule Rossow said at the time of the crash weather conditions included "strong winds and snow." FAA investigators are traveling to the site, and the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified. The NTSB will manage the investigation.

The last time the National Transportation Safety Board came down hard on engineering and construction was in 2007. That year, the board delivered reports on the collapse of the I-35 Highway Bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people, and on a ceiling collapse in a Boston Central Artery tunnel that killed one motorist. Both involved completed structures. With its final investigation findings, the board also made recommendations for new standards and procedures and quality control. NTSB's report on last year’s Miami bridge collapse at Florida International University in mid-construction, which killed five motorists and one construction worker, has similar recommendations....

A bridge-building disaster should be incomprehensible in today’s technical world. Humans have been building bridges for centuries. The science should be well sorted out by now — and for the most part, it is. But the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the March 2018 collapse of the FIU pedestrian bridge highlighted basic design flaws and a complete lack of oversight by every single party that had responsibility to either identify the design errors or stop work once it was clear that there was a massive internal failure. We all know “what happened” here. But the “why” is more elusive....

Mike Exner, a prominent member of the Independent Group, has studied the radar data extensively. He believes that during the turn, the airplane climbed up to 40,000 feet, which was close to its limit. Exner believes the reason for the climb was to accelerate the effects of depressurizing the airplane, causing the rapid incapacitation and death of everyone in the cabin. The cockpit, by contrast, was equipped with four pressurized-oxygen masks linked to hours of supply. Zaharie was often lonely and sad. His wife had moved out, and was living in the family’s second house. By his own admission to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's Autopilot feature was engaged during a fatal March 1 crash of a 2018 Model 3 in Delray Beach, Florida, in at least the third fatal U.S. crash reported involving the driver-assistance system, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. The NTSB's preliminary report said the driver engaged Autopilot about 10 seconds before crashing into a semitrailer, and the system did not detect the driver's hands on the wheel for fewer than eight seconds before the crash. The vehicle was traveling at about 68 miles (109 km) per hour (mph) on a highway with a...

A limousine that crashed and killed 20 people in upstate New York on Saturday was reportedly in “terrible condition,” and was a replacement vehicle after the group’s rented bus broke down before reaching its destination. All 18 inside the vehicle were killed, along with two bystanders after the 2001 Ford Excursion limousine – believed to be headed to a birthday party -- ran through an intersection and struck a parked 2015 Toyota Highlander outside the Apple Barrel Country Store. -snip- The limousine was traveling southwest on state Route 30 in Schoharie, about 170 miles north of New York City and...

SCHOHARIE - Twenty people died Saturday's crash of a limousine in Schoharie County, State Police confirmed late Sunday morning. The crash is the deadliest in the Capital Region since the Oct. 2, 2005 sinking of the Ethan Allen tour boat on Lake George killed 20 people.

An NTSB forensic investigation update of the FIU pedestrian bridge collapse addresses structural components related to the now infamous crack, and others.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — A Malaysian-led independent investigation report released Monday, more than four years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, highlighted shortcomings in the government’s response and raised the possibility of “intervention by a third party.” The report, prepared by a 19-member international team, reiterated Malaysia’s assertion the plane was deliberately diverted and flown for over seven hours after severing communications. Chief investigator Kok Soo Chon said the cause of the disappearance cannot be determined until the wreckage and the plane’s black boxes are found. He said there was no evidence of abnormal behavior or stress in the two pilots...

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the fatal collapse in March of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University in Sweetwater focuses attention on the widely discussed pre-collapse cracking in the main span. The report also confirms accounts about what the construction crew working on the bridge was doing before the structure fell. But the report contains no definitive explanation of what occurred and months and possibly years more will be needed to determine the probable cause of the failure, which killed five motorists and one project worker.

Now, based on two slight clues, experts have a new theory about what doomed the flight: the pilot was committing suicide. From The Washington Post: All but one of the 239 people on the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had probably been unconscious — incapacitated by the sudden depressurization of the Boeing 777 — and had no way of knowing they were on an hours-long, meandering path to their deaths. Along that path, a panel of aviation experts said Sunday, was a brief but telling detour near Penang, Malaysia, the home town of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. On two occasions,...

All but one of the 239 people on the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had probably been unconscious — incapacitated by the sudden depressurization of the Boeing 777 — and had no way of knowing they were on an hours-long, meandering path to their deaths. Along that path, a panel of aviation experts speculated Sunday, was a brief but telling detour near Penang, Malaysia, the hometown of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah. On two occasions, whoever was in control of the plane — and was probably the only one awake — tipped the craft to the left. The experts believe Zaharie,...

The captain of doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 selected a route that would effectively render the plane invisible on radar in order to commit suicide, experts said Sunday. The suspicion that MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was attempting suicide was agreed upon, aviation experts said in a panel discussion on 9 News Australia. Investigators believe MH370 Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was attempting suicide when the plane disappeared. (Facebook) "He was killing himself; unfortunately, he was killing everybody else on board, and he did it deliberately," Larry Vance, a former senior investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said. Shah...

FULL HEADLINE: "PICTURED: Instagram stars and models on their private plane to Las Vegas moments before it crashed onto golf course killing all six on board" Four of the six people who died when their private plane crashed during a flight from Arizona to Las Vegas on Monday have been identified as Instagram stars, models and nightclub promoters. Models Mariah Coogan, 23, and Helena Lagos, 22, nightlife promoter Anand 'Happy' Patel, 26, and nightclub host and aspiring pilot James Pedroza, 28, were all on board the Piper PA-24 Comanche when it crashed into a golf course moments after taking off...

CROZET, Va. – A train carrying dozens of Republican members of Congress, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, to their legislative retreat in West Virginia hit a truck on January 31, 2017 leaving one person dead. Wednesday the National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary investigation into the crash. They said around 11:15 a.m., a 2018 Freightliner truck equipped with a McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing refuse body was traveling southbound on Lanetown Road in Albemarle County near Crozet, Virginia. The refuse truck, operated by Time Disposal LLC, had a 30-year-old driver and two passengers as it drove towards a highway–railroad grade...

Here is the video--6 minutes long of a 50-70 car pileup on I-35 near Ames, Iowa. First minute is a little slow. At about 4:30 in, it starts getting "wow".

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are looking into the crash of a Tesla into a fire engine on the 405 Freeway after local firefighters said the Tesla driver told them the car was on Autopilot at the time of the collision. The luxury car slammed into the back of the fire engine while traveling at a speed of 65 mph on Monday, Culver City firefighters tweeted. No injuries were reported, but a day later, the collision had managed to draw the attention of federal investigators. In an Instagram post, the Culver City firefighters’ union said the Tesla “plowed into the rear of...

The National Transportation Safety Board investigating the accident, which killed three people and injured more than 50 others, is still trying to determine the probable cause and prevent such accidents in the future. It appears that there were two people in the lead locomotive control cab of the train who were both injured and hospitalized: an instructor engineer, and another engineer who was learning the territory and qualifying to operate the train along the route.