NTSB News Talk – Aviation Accidents, Safety Investigations & Pilot Lessons

Max Trescott and Rob Mark review a mysterious Boeing 737 cargo crash, several fuel-related accidents, loss of control, and a dangerous carb-ice misconception. K2 Airways Flight KTA1732, Boeing 737-400F AP-BOI, reported a navigation problem before plunging into the Arabian Sea. The hosts analyze Beechcraft 95-A55 Baron N7501S after an apparent dual-engine failure near Lancaster, South Carolina, following an 18-hour flying day, raisi...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark review a packed week of aviation safety events, beginning with two runway close calls. At Boston Logan, Delta Air Lines Flight 2351 went around after American Airlines Flight 3161 delayed its takeoff roll on an intersecting runway. At Miami, American Airlines Flight AA308, an Airbus A319, rejected takeoff after spotting NetJets Flight EJA434, an Embraer Phenom 300, N434QS, on the runway after an apparent c...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark review major recent aviation accidents and newly released NTSB reports, beginning with two breaking accidents: a U.S. Air Force B-52 crash shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and a fatal skydiving aircraft crash near Butler, Missouri, involving N221BN, a Pacific Aerospace 750XL/P-750 operated for Skydive Kansas City. That accident killed the pilot and 11 skydiving passengers an...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark review a new NTSB recommendations for the FAA’s Runway Condition Assessment Matrix after wet-runway overruns showed that heavy rain can sharply reduce braking effectiveness.

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The episode then turns to several recent and preliminary accidents, including a Piper PA-28 N7188W loss-of-control cr...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark discuss several recent aviation accidents and new NTSB reports, beginning with a tragic Frontier Airlines A321 accident at Denver International Airport, where a man entered the runway environment and was struck during takeoff. The crew rejected the takeoff at high speed, the right engine caught fire, and multiple passengers reported minor injuries.

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Max Trescott and Rob Mark analyze the LaGuardia runway collision involving Jazz Flight 646 and an airport firetruck that was cleared to cross runway 4 shortly before the landing regional jet arrived. The discussion focuses on the timing of the crossing clearance, repeated stop instructions, the movement of the firetruck, and the runway entrance lights that extinguished just seconds before impact. Max explains how runway status ligh...

Max talks with Rob Mark about a dense lineup of recent accidents and final reports, led by the Piper PA-44 Seminole N595ND crash in Fort Pierce, Florida, the Cirrus SR22 N124SP hard landing in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Mooney M20K N4387W stall-spin in St. Augustine, Florida, after a cabin door popped open shortly after takeoff. They also examine the Beech 58 Baron N2063G crash in Tennessee, which appears consistent with a VMC de...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark talk about how pilots get into trouble when they misunderstand instrument procedures, mishandle a go-around, or make shockingly poor decisions on the ground and in the air. They open with Max’s unusual call from the NTSB, which asked him to discuss advisory glidepath guidance, the “+V” vertical path shown on some nonprecision approaches. That leads to a sharp discussion of why advisory gl...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark open with the crash at LaGuardia, where an Air Canada regional jet collided with a fire truck while landing. They examine how a separate emergency, possible controller overload, combined frequencies, and the loss of a second set of eyes may have lined up in a classic Swiss-cheese chain of events. It’s a sobering look at runway-incursion risk, situational overload, and why vehicles and airplanes can n...

In episode 25 of NTSB News Talk, Max Trescott and Rob Mark break down seven NTSB reports with a common theme: the accident often starts long before the impact.

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They begin with an experimental Carbon Cub (N126C) that appears to have struck power lines during very low flight along the Payette River near Montour, Idaho&mdash...

Max Trescott talks with co-host Rob Mark about new docket details on Bering Air Flight 445—a Part 135 Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, N321BA—that crashed near Nome, Alaska after a troubling sequence of weight, icing, and airspeed issues. They discuss how overweight loading, Alaska-specific operating allowances, and confusing “minimum speed in ice” guidance can combine to erase stall margin fast. The Preliminary R...

Max talks with co-host Rob Mark about two headline-making NTSB threads: the DCA midair collision and the preliminary report on the Greg Biffle crash. First, they react to the NTSB’s day-long public hearing on the DCA midair and the board’s newly adopted probable-cause statement—an unusually long, multi-factor finding that points toward fixes in airspace design, controller procedures, ADS-B policy, and military avi...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark talk about the Bangor, Maine Bombardier Challenger 650 crash (N10KJ)—a major breaking story—and what the earliest discussion points usually look like before investigators have hard answers. They outline why takeoff accidents in winter conditions immediately raise questions about contamination, deicing decisions, holdover time, and whether ice or snow could have been present at the start of the ...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark connect a string of very different accidents with one shared theme: safety margin usually disappears one “reasonable” choice at a time—until the airplane (or the environment) collects the debt.

They open with a major development: the NTSB’s urgent recommendation to Textron after two fatal post-maintenance stall test flights in Hawker business jets. Max and Rob explain why stall testi...

Episode 20 of NTSB News Talk opens with an aviation milestone: the first confirmed in-service, real-world use of Garmin’s Autoland. A King Air B200, tail number N479BR, squawked 7700 and ultimately landed itself at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (KBJC) in Broomfield, Colorado on Saturday, December 20, 2025.

Garmin later confirmed the activation, and ATC audio captured the synthetic callouts declaring “pilot incapac...

Max talks with Rob Mark about the fatal crash of a Citation 550 in Statesville, North Carolina, that killed six people, including a NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and members of his family. The accident occurred shortly after takeoff, making it one of the most closely watched aviation tragedies of the week and a focal point of this episode.

Preliminary information indicates the Citation 550 departed Runway 10 at Statesville Airport and s...

Episode 18 begins with an extraordinary behind-the-scenes dispute surrounding the Air India Boeing 787 crash investigation. Max and Rob open with a Wall Street Journal report describing how U.S. technical experts arrived in Delhi last summer expecting to assist with the black-box analysis, only to be told they would need to board a late-night military flight to a remote facility. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy expressed concerns about...

Episode 17 of NTSB News Talk brings together an unusually rich set of accidents and safety insights, all centered on pilot decision-making, trim system failures, swept-wing stall risks, and the ongoing challenge of hand-flying in IMC when automation misbehaves. In this week’s discussion, hosts Max Trescott and Rob Mark use recent NTSB reports to highlight the mistakes, mechanical failures, and chain-of-events that continue to...

Max Trescott and Rob Mark explore one of the most overlooked killers in aviation: common medications that quietly impair pilots and contribute to fatal crashes. While many aviators think over-the-counter or prescription drugs are safe if they “feel fine,” the NTSB’s recent accident reports tell a different story. In case after case, pilots who ignored FAA medication rules—or failed to understand them—l...