A Cessna Caravan made an emergency landing on a highway in Virginia on Friday afternoon just four minutes after takeoff from nearby Dulles International Airport (KIAD).

In a snowstorm, 27-year-old pilot Ahmed Awais was able to safely land the turboprop single—operating as Southern Airways Express Flight 246, headed to Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania, per the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority—on the westbound lanes of a highway in Loudoun County.

According to the Virginia State Police, the only property damage was to the guardrail on the right side of the parkway. A released recording of the conversation between the regional airliner and air traffic control had the copilot declaring a mayday, and then quickly reporting the Caravan was on the ground “across from Wendy’s and Aldi.”

The two crewmembers and five passengers exited the airplane without injury. “We are thankful to our pilots, who did exactly what they were trained to do—to put the safety of our passengers first,” noted Southern Airways CEO Stan Little. “We are working closely with the authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation, and we will take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety and security of our passengers and our fleet.”

Photos from the scene—taken before the aircraft was removed from the roadway and towed back to KIAD—show damage to the Caravan’s prop. The cause of the emergency landing is not yet determined. The FAA and the NTSB are investigating.

Pilatus will take over Ruag Aerostructures Schweiz’s entire workforce of about 230 employees and all its machinery in the second quarter, the Swiss manufacturer said today. In line with the Swiss government’s “strategic goals” for Ruag International, Pilatus will make its own components at the site in Emmen, Switzerland.

Ruag Aerostructures Schweiz has produced parts and components for Pilatus Aircraft since the early 1990s, including fuselages for the PC-21 and horizontal stabilizers for the PC-12. Pilatus said this acquisition will allow it to increase production capacity and add more competencies.

“The new location close to Lucerne will give us better access to talent whilst also allowing us to expand our own production expertise,” said Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher.

Pilatus plans to rent a facility from Ruag Real Estate at the site at Emmen Airfield. Future operations will exclusively involve making parts and components required for aircraft production at Pilatus’ main plant in Stans, Switzerland. For a limited period, Pilatus will continue to take orders from external customers previously served by Ruag Aerostructures Schweiz.

A separate agreement between Ruag Real Estate and Pilatus also sets out options for the acquisition of an adjacent plot of land for potential future development in the medium to long term.

West Star Aviation Academy (WSAA) last week welcomed its first set of apprentice technicians to the inaugural class that will prepare them to become aviation maintenance technicians. The program, at West Star Aviation’s East Alton, Illinois facility, is a paid apprenticeship and will take 7.5 months.

Apprentices will undergo classroom and hands-on training, as well as receive mentoring and shadow technicians at West Star’s maintenance facility to help the students “bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world experience,” according to West Star Aviation. “The goal of WSAA is to produce a highly skilled and work-ready pool of FAA-licensed aircraft maintenance technicians while removing the barriers associated with gaining employment along with fulfilling the educational and licensing requirements provided by this accelerated program.”

West Star Aviation worked with Southwestern Illinois College, the village of Bethalto, and the state of Illinois to set up the academy, and it has been a key employer in the region for many years. The company also has facilities in Grand Junction, Colorado; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Perryville, Missouri, as well as satellite locations at Chicago Executive Airport; Centennial Airport in Denver; Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport; and Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

After the UK’s Brexit departure from the European Union (EU), the country’s participation in the EU’s European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) ended and pilots weren’t allowed to use Egnos-based instrument approaches at many airports. Satellite operator Viasat has demonstrated, with the National Flying Laboratory Centre, satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) high-accuracy positioning services that could lead to UK-developed SBAS approaches.

The airborne testing was done in the National Flight Lab’s Saab 340B twin turboprop using broadcast capability from Viasat’s I-3 F5 satellite. According to Viasat, the “UK SBAS generates an overlay test signal to the U.S. Global Positioning System, fully compliant with International Civil Aviation Organization standards, to enable assessment of more precise, resilient and high-integrity navigation for maritime and aviation users in UK waters and airspace.”

Viasat estimates that a regional airline could have safely flown an SBAS approach and landed during 40 percent of flights that were canceled because of weather conditions. “Around the UK, 19 airports had EGNOS procedures in place prior to leaving the European Union.”

Funding for the tests came from the UK Department for Transport via the European Space Agency’s NAVISP program. A Viasat-led team is completing the trial and includes Goonhilly Earth Station, CGI UK, GMV, Ordnance Survey, Cranfield University, the Cranfield National Flying Laboratory Centre, and Pildo Labs.

Preowned single-engine helicopter prices have held strong despite retail sales dropping to the lowest level in three years, according to Toronto-based Aero Asset's Heli Market Trends 2023 Single-engine Report.

Compared to 2022, retail sales volume was 50 percent lower than 2023, the report notes, and the supply of single-engine helicopters for sale was 30 percent higher. However, average asking price grew by 4 percent and transaction price climbed 13 percent year-over-year (YOY), the helicopter broker and market intelligence company Aero Asset said. “Absorption rate deteriorated through 2023 but ended the year at a reasonable one year of supply at current trade levels.” 

Bell’s 407 series was the most active or liquid market in 2023, and the least liquid was the Airbus EC130B4/H130. The Airbus AStar AS350B3 and -B3e/H125 followed the Bell 407, then the Leonardo AW119 series.

In terms of regions, North America ranked highest at 62 percent of 2023 transactions, Latin America 14 percent, Asia-Pacific 12 percent, and Europe at 9 percent (but had dropped 70 percent YOY), according to Aero Asset. At the same time, Europe had the highest share of supply for sale at 36 percent, then North America at 22 percent, and Asia-Pacific and Latin America at 17 percent each, with the rest of the world at 8 percent.