Colleen Mondor

@chasingray

Aviation journalist, especially on Alaska. Never met a federal database I didn't love. "Probable Cause" newsletter is here:

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Colleen Mondor@chasingray· 29d

A more complete picture of the Fort Simpson crash involving the Aero Commander last month. A significant portion of the aircraft is still missing. www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/enquetes...

What we know

The aircraft was providing tactical support for a water bomber at a fire west of the community of Fort Simpson.

The left wing, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer were not found at the accident site.

An aerial search for the missing aircraft components was not successful.

The accident site is located in muskeg with ponds, small lakes, and rivers nearby.

There was an active forest fire in the immediate vicinity of the accident site.

At the time of the accident, the aircraft airframe had 5386.2 hours since new and 7348 airframe cycles.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· 29d

I'm glad they are okay but this is not something, in my opinion, is a good idea.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jul 13

This is a picture my husband sent from our truck in Billings, Montana yesterday. Note the outside temperature on the right side of the mirror - 119. It cooled to 113 today. This. Is. Not. Good. (And to say the “born & raised in Alaska” guy is miserable would be an understatement.)

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jul 3

This is the aircraft after the forced landing last week. Louis flies into Anaktuvuk Pass daily and has been for decades. He flew for the company I worked for, way back when, in the YK-Delta. He is really the salt of the earth and absolutely cool under pressure as he proved yet again.

Forced landing the bush with everyone 100% okay!

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jul 3

Remember the forced landing that got reported last week in Alaska? Turns out the pilot was an old friend & co-worker, a guy who has been flying that region FOREVER. Louis Knapp is one of the best - so happy to see him celebrated on his 1st flight back to Anaktuvuk.

Pic of Alaska pilot Louis Knapp - on left - getting cheered & applauded in AKP after his perfect forced landing a week ago in the Brooks Range.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jul 2

I mean....

In Washington, Trump’s dreams have been slowed by lawsuits. The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Birnbaum’s Washington-based nonprofit, has filed a challenge to Trump’s renovations to the Reflecting Pool and joined as a co-plaintiff on suits related to the president’s plans for the Kennedy Center and a “National Garden of American Heroes” in West Potomac Park. Trump’s proposals for a ballroom and an arch also face legal challenges. Some of the suits are aimed at proving that the Trump administration is avoiding the normal review process for federal projects that would reshape the capital landscape in ways that it hasn’t been in decades. Birnbaum said that he has been “gobsmacked” that the careful layout of the city and the legal protections that have been in place for more than a century are being upended.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jul 2

Links to all these books & more in the newsletter (plus bonus bush pilot pic!). Back next week with airplane-related stuff after I spend my weekend getting a ton of FOIAs ready to go (it's epic spreadsheet time, folks) & also doing some writing. And, I really need to get reading this. /fin

Cover of COLLISION COURSE by Joseph McCartin

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 23

Sent today from a friend in Juneau. Cruise ships are stupid big and I don’t know why they keep expanding.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 23

This is just - bewildering. I can't imagine these numbers. Aviation safety will never get these numbers. Should I close my posts to paying subs even tho I'm writing about issues that concern safety for everyone? I mean, 6,000 paying subscribers....WOW. (I don't even have 100.) (I'm so screwed.)

Excerpt from Freddie deBoer's interview with John Warner over on substack:

What Substack offers is a different kind of precarity, not an escape from it. My income is entirely contingent on 65,000 people continuing to find me worth reading and 6,000 of them finding my work worth paying for, which is not exactly a pension. I think about it constantly. Sometimes I lie awake at night about it! But here’s the thing—it’s legible precarity. I know exactly where I stand. I know what I earn, I know what I owe my readers, I know what happens if they leave.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 23

Thanks for reading! And this picture - can you believe the owner attached a box of pyrotechnics to the a/c and then shrugged his shoulders to investigators after this shit show happened as if this illegal crap is no big deal?! (So glad the pilot was able to parachute out as well.)

Picture of a Cessna 182 on fire in the air after an illegal box of pyrotechnics for a night skydiving jump caught on fire. I still cannot believe someone thought this shit was a good idea. (Everyone lived - including the pilot who also, thank goodness, had a parachute.)

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 23

There are a lot of engine losses for unknown reasons. In reading the reports it is clear that investigators think the losses are due to fuel starvation or poor mx, but couldn't prove it definitively. Clearly proper fueling (wt & bal) & maintenance are the key problems for the industry. /3

A table showing the leading causes of skydiving accidents with fuel starvation due to pilot, poor maintenance & unk engine loss as leaders.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 23

Because they operate under Part 91 there is no minimum flight time req so you end up with some low time pilots in skydiving. Here is how the flight time & causes broke down looking back to 2006. Note - "Skydiver Prob Cause" means a skydiver opened a parachute in the a/c causing the accident. /2

A table of flight time for skydiving accidents over the past 20 years showing flight time groups as correlating to probable cause.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 22

Wernher Krutein's decades of photos are a reminder of why we do not need AI in photography. You can enter it here: photovault.com/search?q=FAA.... The pics can be licensed. The photo below is from his collection, taken in Valdez after the 1964 Alaska Earthquake.

photo of boat after the 1964 AK Earthquake spawned tidal wave hit Valdez

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 21

Here's my starred Booklist review of THIS VAST ENTERPRISE. It adds to the scholarship of Lewis & Clark and makes the expedition so much more interesting. (Don't be intimidated by the page length - I promise, you will be drawn into this book so fast!) www.booklistonline.com/products/982...

This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark.

By Craig Fehrman.
Apr. 2026. 544p. Simon & Schuster/Avid Reader, $35 (9781982174248); e-book (9781982174262). 917.804.
REVIEW. First published March 1, 2026 (Booklist).

In this riveting and revitalized new history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, acclaimed historian Fehrman (Author in Chief, 2020) draws from not only the written documents of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark to tell the story but also centers chapters around Corps of Discovery member John Ordway, Shoshone translator Sacajawea, multiple Native Americans who encountered the expedition, and, most significantly York, an enslaved Black man owned by Clark who was critical to the expedition’s success. By writing from various points of view, Fehrman broadens the long-held narrative of the expedition, enriching what we know of its successes and failures. Grounded in outstanding scholarship documented in significant bibliographic essays on his sourcing and two outstanding appendices in which he discusses how specific research was conducted, Fehrman provides a model for revisiting long-studied aspects of our nation’s past. York proves to be the moral center here, while the dichotomy between Clark’s thoughtful decisions with the rest of the corps versus his refusal to acknowledge the horrors of slavery that directly tormented a man who embodied all the honor the corps sought to achieve is nothing less than startling. Fehrman has done a great service to American history in this must-read.
— Colleen Mondor

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 21

My father died 27 years ago, one week after his 60th birthday. He taught me to catch waves. He taught me drive. He taught me to play cribbage. He took us to the library every week. He knew everything about the NHL. He baked our birthday cakes from scratch. Cancer sucks.

My father while stationed in Spain, 1963.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 16

I mean...if you have night skydiving approval might as well add an unapproved pyrotechnics display, right? Good grief. (This is from 2016.)

$The commercial pilot was conducting a skydiving flight with a night aerial pyrotechnic display. According to the pilot and the lead jumper, who was also one of the airplane's co-owners, a pyrotechnic box was installed on a step on the airplane's left main landing gear assembly spring leg just before the flight. The pilot and the lead jumper reported that, after departure and as the airplane arrived at the planned jump area and altitude, the skydivers were given the go-ahead to jump, and one of the jumper's activated the sparklers in the pyrotechnic box. Shortly thereafter, they heard an explosion and then saw damage to the bottom of the left wing with fuel pouring out of it. The left wing became engulfed in flames, and the skydivers successfully jumped out of the airplane. The pilot shut off the fuel and performed a slip maneuver in an attempt to extinguish the fire to no avail. After realizing the airplane would not be able to reach the nearest airport, he tried to aim the airplane toward a field and then jumped out of the airplane. The airplane subsequently impacted a house, and most of the airplane and the house's interior were consumed by fire. Examination of aluminum metal pieces from the pyrotechnic box revealed a high degree of fragmentation, fractures along the fold lines, outward deformation, curling of some of the edges, and cratering from high-velocity particle impact, consistent with an explosion originating from inside the pyrotechnics box. Shrapnel from the box, which was located near the left wing, likely punctured the left wing fuel tank, which led to the subsequent fuel leakage and fire. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane before the explosion. The pilot added that the co-owner told him the pyrotechnic box was approved and properly tested. When he asked the co-owner about the box, the co-owner said that it was a sparkler box and that its installation was considered a minor alteration because it…$

flight with the company using pyrotechnics. The co-owner reported that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was not aware of the box installation.
Although the FAA had provided a COA for the night parachute operation, the COA did not include a special provision for night airborne pyrotechnics; therefore, the accident flight did not have the necessary authorization for flight. Further, a review of maintenance records revealed no documentation
for a supplemental type certificate or field approval for the installation of the pyrotechnic box, both of which were required for this type of installation and operation. The FAA had not examined the box before the flight to determine its safety or whether the airplane was airworthy.
The owners were responsible for ensuring the airworthiness of the airplane. Further, per federal regulations, the pilot is responsible for the overall safety of the flight, including ensuring the flight complies with all applicable regulations. The owners' failure to attain proper authorization and approval to install the pyrotechnic box and use it during the flight and the pilot's failure to ensure that the use of pyrotechnics during the flight was properly authorized and approved before the flight led to the airplane being operating in an unsafe manner and contributed to the accident.

Probable Cause and Findings
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
An inadvertent explosion of pyrotechnics, which were contained in a box that had been installed on the airplane's left main landing gear assembly spring leg which resulted in shrapnel striking the airplane's left wing and breaching the left wing fuel tank, which led to a subsequent fuel leak and fire.

Contributing to the accident was the airplane owners' improper decision to install an untested pyrotechnic box and his failure to attain proper authorization to use it during the flight

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 16

When people ask me about safety regs for skydiving (almost all of whom operate as general aviation, under Part 91), this is the kind of thing I think of. This is from an NTSB interview with co-owner of a company that crashed in 2023 killing the pilot (sole occupant). They only weighed "large" folks.

Shows handwritten note from NTSB investigator of phone call. Tex reads:
Was a weight and balance form completed for the accident flight?
Not for each flight. If people are large, they get accurate weights using a scale they have.

Was anybody with the accident pilot when added fuel?
Likely it was only him there. She will work on a timeline of flights since fueling.
Discussion of pilot info:
She indicated the accident pilot was not on their insurance policy. He started flying for them in the Spring of 2022 flying until the end of October 2022 with some intermittent flying in the winter, weather permitting.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· Jun 12

He’s spoiled rotten.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 31

I don't think we are talking enough about what the Springsteen Center is doing next weekend in New Jersey. This line-up is incredible. Talk about diverse musical genres - it's insane. More details: nj1015.com/springsteen-...

The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music is the home of the Bruce Springsteen Archives, which serves as the official repository for materials related to Springsteen and the E Street Band, including photos, historic memorabilia, oral histories, and more.

Joining Springsteen and Bon Jovi performing over the two nights include Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Dropkick Murphys, Shemekia Copeland, Valerie June, Keb’ Mo’, Nils Lofgren, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Tony Trischka and Sister Sadie, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty and the New Breed Brass Band, Stevie Van Zandt, and Jimme Vaughn.

Van Zandt’s band, The Disciples of Soul, will serve as the house band.

Each artist is scheduled to perform landmark songs from American music history, with blues, bluegrass, rock, hip-hop, folk, jazz, country, and gospel genres all represented.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 29

This pic is from Madrid, Spain in 1962 when my grandfather was stationed at Torrejon AFB. From the note on the back, my Mom is in the driver’s seat but she has no memory of this car. (My grandparents had a VW over there.) Can anyone tell us what kind of car this is? My mom is curious.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 22

Beyond thrilled to be a finalist in the Aerospace Media Awards for my piece on LaGuardia that was published by @theatlantic.com. This really means a lot to me. See all the finalists here: www.aerospacemediadinner.com

The Best Breaking News Submission - sponsored by Honeywell

Sonja Agata Biscan - Europe Is Betting On Space - TVP World

Linus Höller - Heavy Russian cargo plane lands in Caracas amid US-Venezuela tensions - Defense News

Colleen Mondor - Twenty Seconds of Task Saturation at LaGuardia - The Atlantic

Guy Norris - Satellite Images Reveal New Chinese Widebody Transonic Test Site - Aviation Week

Jon Ostrower - Air India crash investigation focuses on movement of engine fuel control switches - The Air Current

Steve Trimble - Project Lotus, Northrop Grumman’s Secret Autonomous Aircraft Revealed - Aviation Week

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 20

In 1960, air traffic controllers were regarded as “superhuman” and the job “too complex and nerve-straining for mere man.” The author notes on the next page that ATC is “probably one of the most underpaid jobs in the world.” (Source: “Probable Cause” by Robert Serling.) (it’s an excellent book!)

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 18

Lord, give me patience and strength. The notion that AI can predict flying conditions 6 months in advance is ridiculous. The federal gov't slashed NOAA and the Nat Weather Service under DOGE so AI could predict weather for us? All of this instead of just HIRING MORE CONTROLLERS.

In addition to the new staffing model, the FAA said it will explore the use of automation to modernize scheduling and workforce management. Absences have forced the agency to either reduce traffic or rely too heavily on mandatory overtime. But it believes modern tools could mitigate fatigue, surge staffing to facilities experiencing high traffic, and increase controller time-on-position from four to five or six hours per eight-hour shift.

The Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) system, which officials discussed in April in Washington could support those efforts. Per an executive of Thales—one of three companies reported to be bidding on SMART—the FAA envisions the system predicting weather, traffic, and other airspace conditions up to six months in advance.

The FAA’s Friday news release notes its plans to use “artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to better simulate and manage NAS performance before the day of departure”—a possible allusion to SMART.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 18

Rereading this one and loving every minute. Whether or not you care about Sinatra, it's a small gem of cultural appreciation. My favorite quote? For someone who's own father was first generation, these words hit hard and true. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/pete-...

“Of course it meant something to me to be the son of immigrants.” Sinatra said to me once. “How could it not? How the hell could it not? I grew up for a few years thinking I was just another American kid. Then I discovered at – what? five? six? – I discovered that some people thought I was a dago. A wop. A guinea.” An angry pause. “You know, like I didn’t have a fucking name.” Harry [James] wanted me to change my name, I said, no way, baby. The name is Sinatra. Frank fucking Sinatra.”

cover for WHY SINATRA MATTERS by Pete Hamill

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 17

This bit kills me. From the NY Times in 1988 when the Sec of Transportation claimed the FAA said they didn't need more safety inspectors and it was DOT that fixed the problem. Not so fast, said Sen Ford - the FAA was actually being strangled by incorrect staffing figures across the board. /4

DOT said that FAA cut inspector staffing by 25% but was wrong to do so and DOT saved it. Sen Ford said that was a lie and FAA was hamstrung by DOT's low staffing limits.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 16

Just came in from a friend waiting to depart Pullman for SEA (and eventually ANC) on AK Airlines. It’s been one day since the FAA slashed its controller staffing targets and said we can do just fine with fewer controllers. FYI: I am so tired of this.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 15

Ummm....this doesn't sound good.

Owen Martin, 47, is facing a fourth-degree assault charge and four counts of assault in the presence of a child after he hit and slapped a family member several times during an argument at a Wasilla home, according to an initial charging document filed Thursday.

The altercation, prompted by an argument over a phone, resulted in the other person bleeding from their head and suffering small cuts on their hands, Trooper Caleb Mertens wrote in a sworn affidavit included with the charging document. Martin “was the primary physical aggressor in this case,” Mertens wrote.

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 14

Oof - they are all going down!

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 14

There is a puppy pile happening on the Denali Sled Dog cam. (Not all the puppies are asleep, so I think these guys are going to jumped on soon.) www.nps.gov/dena/learn/p...

Colleen Mondor@chasingray· May 14

If you're wondering about the situation with FAA safety inspectors, I think this paragraph says it all. (And yes, every footnote goes to a specific accident report.) (In case you wondered why covering Part 135 accidents is important, it's because of info like this.)