Narrative

High Country Descent The silence of the Colorado high country was broken only by the wind whistling through the sparse vegetation. Then, a sound… alien to this remote, rugged landscape. The strained whine of a light aircraft engine, fighting against unseen forces. Witnesses on the ground, few and far between, might have glanced up, perhaps […]

It was a clear autumn afternoon in Green Bay, Wisconsin. October 17th, 2019. The sky was open, the air crisp, perfect flying weather. For the pilot of the Aeronca 7AC Champion, a classic tailwheel aircraft built just after the Second World War, it was a routine flight, returning to his home strip, Martins Aerodrome. The

The data trail ends abruptly… sixteen nautical miles from the destination, swallowed by the night and the worsening weather. One moment, a small Cessna 172, registration N6482B, is attempting a desperate maneuver high above the Oklahoma plains. The next, silence. Just before the signal is lost, the aircraft is locked in a decreasing-radius, descending left

January 29th, 2021. A routine cargo flight, MMA6853, a Boeing 767-300 operated by Aerotransportes Mas de Carga, lifts off from Los Angeles International Airport, bound for Mexico City. Onboard, the flight crew, experienced professionals, guide the heavy jet into the California sky. But something is wrong. Almost immediately after the landing gear is retracted, a

The silence of the Colorado high country was broken only by the wind whistling through the sparse vegetation. Then, a sound… alien to this remote, rugged landscape. The strained whine of a light aircraft engine, fighting against unseen forces. Witnesses on the ground, few and far between, might have glanced up, perhaps noticing a small

December 28th, 1997. High above the vast, unforgiving expanse of the Pacific Ocean, United Airlines Flight 826, a Boeing 747-122, sliced through the night. Inside the giant jet, 374 passengers and 19 crew members settled into the long journey from Narita, Japan, to Honolulu, Hawaii. The captain, a seasoned aviator with over 15,000 flight hours,

The early afternoon sun beat down on Monticello Regional Airport in Iowa, July 1st, 2017. A light sport aircraft, a sleek, carbon-fiber Flight Design CTSW, N62JN, was on final approach to runway 27. Inside, a 90-year-old commercial pilot, with thousands of hours of flight time, was preparing for a routine full-stop landing. Beside him, in