Flight Safety Information - October 15, 2026 No. 203 In This Issue : Incident: India B789 near Jaipur on Oct 13th 2026, unlawful interference suspected : Dassault Falcon 50EX - lost its cabin door (Canada) : Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage JetPROP DLX - entered an area of thunderstorms during cruise/crash (Wisconsin) : The FAA Just Shrank Its Air Traffic Controller Shortage by 2,000 People Without Adding a Single Controller : : Air Canada Flight 143 bound for Edmonton ran out of fuel mid-air after ground crews used pounds instead of kilograms while calculating its load; : Calendar of Events Incident: India B789 near Jaipur on Oct 13th 2026, unlawful interference suspected An Air India Boeing 787-9, registration VT-TSE performing flight AI-2030 from Frankfurt/Main (Germany) to Delhi (India) with 306 people on board, was enroute at FL390 about 80nm southwest of Jaipur (India) when the crew diverted the aircraft to Jaipur after the transponder code was set to "unlawful interference". The aircraft landed safely on Jaipur's runway 26 about 30 minutes later and taxied to a remote apron. Jaipur Airport reported the aircraft and passengers and crew were given security checks, the situation was under control. Preliminary information suggests the code for unlawful interference was activated by mistake, possibly by crew input or a technical glitch by the aircraft systems, it is not yet clear what caused the transmission of the code. About 5 hours after landing the passengers boarded the aircraft again and the flight continued to Delhi. The aircraft reached Delhi with a delay of about 4.5 hours. https://avherald.com/h?article=543cdc35&opt=0 Dassault Falcon 50EX - lost its cabin door (Canada) Date: Wednesday 14 October 2026 Time: c. 16:08 LT Type: Dassault Falcon 50EX Owner/operator: Falcon VL LLC Registration: N413VL MSN: 345 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 7 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Minor Location: about 280 km E of Calgary, AB - Canada Phase: En route Nature: Executive Departure airport: Edmonton International Airport, AB (YEG/CYEG) Destination airport: New Iberia-Acadiana Regional Airport, LA (ARA/KARA) Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: A Falcon 50EX, N413VL (winglet mod.), lost its cabin door mid-flight over Leader, about 280 km east of Calgary, and diverted to Calgary International Aiport (YYC/CYYC). ADS-B data show the aircraft departing Edmonton International Aiport (YEG/CYEG) at 15:41 local time (21:41 UTC). At 22:08, after having remained at FL370 for about six minutes, the flight made an emergency descent to FL100 while turning toward YYC immediately. The flight landed at YYC at 16:57 local time. ATC audio indicates the aircraft had 'lost a cabin door'. https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/583329 Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage JetPROP DLX - entered an area of thunderstorms during cruise/crash (Wisconsin) Date: Tuesday 13 October 2026 Time: c. 21:31 LT Type: Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage JetPROP DLX Owner/operator: Compass Pro LLC Registration: N931TT MSN: 4636441 Year of manufacture: 2008 Fatalities: Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Destroyed Category: Accident Location: Dellona, WI - United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Private Departure airport: Kenosha Municipal Airport, WI (ENW/KENW) Destination airport: Menomonie Municipal Score Field, WI (KLUM) Investigating agency: NTSB Confidence Rating: Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources Narrative: A Piper PA-46-350P Malibu Mirage JetPROP DLX, N931TT, entered an area of thunderstorms during cruise, and crashed in a wooded area near Park Lane, Dellona, Wisconsin. The six occupants perished and the aircraft was destroyed. https://www.aviation-safety.net/wikibase/583285 The FAA Just Shrank Its Air Traffic Controller Shortage by 2,000 People Without Adding a Single Controller For years, the United States has been short of roughly 3,000 air traffic controllers. The shortage has forced controllers into mandatory overtime and six-day weeks, and caused delays from New York to Las Vegas. In May, the FAA announced a new plan. Part of its solution was to lower the number of controllers it says the country needs. The New Math Under its 2026 to 2028 Workforce Plan, the FAA now says 12,563 certified controllers are required to be fully staffed. In 2024, it forecast it needed 14,633 for the same period. That change alone closes the gap by more than 2,000 positions on paper. As of April, around 11,000 certified controllers were working across more than 300 FAA facilities, with about 4,000 more in training. The FAA says modern scheduling tools and a data-driven staffing model will let fewer controllers keep the skies running safely, cut excessive overtime and reduce fatigue. It says the new target is based on a review by the National Academies' Transportation Research Board. It will also review the operating hours of some facilities to match staffing more closely to busy periods. Why Some Are Skeptical Months before the plan was released, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford warned lawmakers that control towers would never reach full staffing if the agency kept operating the way it had. Critics see the lower target as moving the goalposts. Supporters argue the old models overstated what was needed. Either way, the training bottleneck remains. A new controller can take two to five years to certify fully, and not every trainee makes it through. What It Means for Travelers Even with hiring of 2,200 controllers planned for this year, 2,300 in 2027 and 2,400 in 2028, the effect on daily operations will take years to arrive. In the meantime, the pattern of 2026 is likely to continue. When staffing falls short, the FAA slows the flow of aircraft, and passengers absorb the delay. That has already happened repeatedly at the New York airports, Philadelphia and Las Vegas. An Important Distinction None of this means flying has become unsafe. When there aren't enough controllers, the system slows down rather than taking risks. The cost lands on reliability and on travelers' time, not on safety margins. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/faa-just-shrank-air-traffic-012100755.html Air Canada Flight 143 bound for Edmonton ran out of fuel mid-air after ground crews used pounds instead of kilograms while calculating its load; pilots glided the powerless Boeing 767 to safety but faced consequences Air Canada Flight 143 bound for Edmonton ran out of fuel mid-air after ground crews used pounds instead of kilograms while calculating its load; pilots glided the powerless Boeing 767 to safety but faced On July 23, 1983, Air Canada Flight 143 faced a critical fuel shortage, prompting an emergency landing in Gimli, Manitoba, coinciding with a local go-kart event. The skilled pilots employed gliding techniques to navigate the situation, ensuring a safe touchdown after engine failure. Though the aircraft incurred damage, the survival of all on board underscored human ingenuity, leading to significant advancements in aviation safety protocols. Air Canada Flight 143 ran out of fuel on its way to Edmonton after ground crews used pounds instead of kilograms AP It was a “family day” for the Winnipeg Sports Car Club in the small Canadian town of Gimli, Manitoba, on July 23, 1983. Families and campers who had gathered at the former Royal Canadian Air Force base for the go-kart races suddenly heard two boys bragging about a plane crash. “All of the sudden there was a 767 right there,” Dave Brown, who was tending to a barbecue with a beer in his hand, described the extraordinary situation 40 years after the incident in 2023 to Global News. The aircraft with 61 passengers and 8 crew had run out of fuel thousands of feet above the ground, but somehow managed to land without any casualties. But the 1983 plane crash of Manibota is one of the rarest of its kind of aviation mishap, known as “Gimli Glider” which happened because of a minuscule metric miscalculation of airplane fuel. A metric conversion error leaves the plane short of fuel Air Canada Flight 143’s fuel supply was running out after taking off from Montreal for Edmonton. “The Boeing 767 was the first metric plane to fly in Canada,” CBC News reported, covering the incident in a 2018 report. According to the Canadian outlet, the plane's fuel-quantity information system malfunctioned, and the ground crew had to calculate the fuel load manually using the specific gravity of jet fuel. But the conversion factor “they used was 1.77 pounds/liter,” instead of the all-metric 0.8 kg/liter required for the new 767, the publication wrote. So the crew actually loaded only half the fuel it needed to reach Edmonton. The pilots understood the fuel shortage when the plane was near Ontario’s Red Lake, little over halfway between Montreal and Edmonton. Air Canada Flight 143 bound for Edmonton ran out of fuel mid-air after ground crews used pounds instead of kilograms How a glider pilot saved 69 people Captain Robert Pearson, who was an experienced glider pilot, alongside First Officer Maurice Quintal, calculated that without both engines working properly, they would not reach the nearest airport for emergency refueling in Winnipeg. Quintal, who had previously been stationed at the Gimli air base, knew the location and was familiar with the landing strips. The pilots somehow kept the powerless Boeing 767 airborne for about 17 long minutes before reaching Gimli. “This was, like, one in a million that this guy landed this plane because people with double engine failures usually don’t make it back,” Al Marcoux, a volunteer at the motorsports track who witnessed the incident, told Global News. The landing, however, was expectedly not a routine one. A runway full of families and go-kart racers As the engines were shut and the plane lost hydraulic power, the landing nose could not be properly aligned, needed for the landing, CBC News noted. During landing, its nose struck the ground, which caused a fire and sparks along the tarmac. Go-kart racers present there extinguished it with fire extinguishers. As the nose gear failed, the airplane’s tail rose high. Some passengers were injured while evacuating down the rear emergency slide, but no injuries were reported after the emergency landing. “It put Gimli on the map,” Marcoux told Global News, on how the plane’s emergency landing made the tiny town of less than 2,000 people at that time popular in aviation history. The aftermath of the Gimli Glider The aircraft was repaired at Gimli and flown to Winnipeg, and eventually returned to commercial service. It retired in 2008. Although the pilots saved themselves along with the passengers and crews, it was consequential for them. On October 4, 1983, Air Canada demoted the pilot and suspended the co-pilot for six weeks for “allowing the near-tragedy to happen,” CBS wrote. Three ground workers were also suspended. A 1985 Transport Canada report identified errors, inadequate training, and shortcomings in safety procedures. However, Brown, who assisted the initial rescue works, holds a different account of the incident. He told Global News that “Technology allowed a 767 to glide for 17 minutes from 40,000 feet, but it was human beings that landed it.” https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/world/us/air-canada-flight-143-bound-for-edmonton-ran-out-of-fuel-mid-air-after-ground-crews-used-pounds-instead-of-kilograms-while-calculating-its-load-pilots-glided-the-powerless-boeing-767-to-safety-but-faced-consequences/articleshow/134958258.cms CALENDAR OF EVENTS . European Aviation Training Summit 3 – 5 November 2026 • Estoril Congress Centre, Cascais, Portugal . 79TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL AVIATION SAFETY SUMMIT MONTREAL | NOVEMBER 10-12, 2026. . Airlines 2026 conference - November 11, 2026 (London) . 2026 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) Oct. 20-22, 2026 | Las Vegas, NV . Gulf Flight Safety Association (GFSA)conference Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 28th and 29th of October 2026 . Bombardier Safety Standdown (November 10–12, 2026 in Wichita, KS) . CHC Safety & Quality Summit - 11th – 13th November 2025 - Vancouver, BC Canada . Aircraft Fire Hazards, Protection, and Investigation17 to 19 November 2026, Woburn MA : Save The Date - February 11-12, 2027 - ProDIGIQ User Conference . 2027 ACSF Safety Symposium - April 6-8, 2027 - ERAU Daytona Beach, FL Curt Lewis