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Now, let's explore what's making news in aviation today.1.AINsight: Go-arounds Are a Normal and Expected OutcomeBy Stuart “Kipp” Lau • Contributor - SafetyAugust 28, 2026Earlier this month, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) issued a safety notice warning aircraft operators and pilots about an unacceptable rise in unstable approaches that continue to land rather than go around. The regulator, citing historical data, said this practice makes a subsequent adverse event 80 to 100 times more likely.Safety Notice SN-2026/008 “sets out the actions that operators are expected to take within their operational, safety management, and training systems to reduce the incidence of unstable approaches continued to landing and to reinforce the go-around as a normal, expected, and well-practiced response.”A stabilized approach is a well-established defense against approach and landing accidents. The practice is effective at reducing runway excursions, hard landings, tail strikes, and runway contact events.However, according to the CAA, data from mandatory occurrence reports and operator safety data indicated a concerning negative trend. The regulator acknowledged the fact that an unstable approach does not always result in a negative outcome; in many cases, these approaches that continue without a go-around conclude with an uneventful landing.The CAA safety notice identifies unstable approaches continuing to land as a persistent issue that affects aviation safety. The uptick in these events was described as a “concerning trend.”The reality is the lack of go-arounds from unstable approaches is a decades-old problem. FAA ASIAS data has historically shown a lack of compliance in go-arounds from unstable approaches. The fact that only 3% to 5% of unstable approaches result in a go-around—meaning 95% to 97% continue to land—is problematic.The CAA safety notice places an emphasis on a go-around as a normal and expected outcome of an unstable approach. This is sound advice. A go-around is not an “emergency,” and any professional pilot should be confident and comfortable flying the maneuver. In addition, a pilot’s decision to go around must be supported by unambiguous SOPs and a no-fault go-around policy.Absent from the CAA’s analysis is a discussion about those flight crews that continue the unstable approach and land. Outside of those exceptional circumstances specifically defined by the CAA (a hazard that makes the go-around a greater safety risk), there are very few legitimate reasons to continue an unstable approach to a landing.Deviating from established SOPs is a slippery slope and is indicative of either intentional noncompliance, a breakdown in crew resource management, or a failure of leadership by the pilot-in-command. The potential negative consequences of continuing an unstable approach far outweigh the favorable outcomes of a go-around.AINsight: Aircraft Go-arounds Are a Normal and Expected Outcome | Aviation International News2.Vertical Lift Groups Extend Trade Show PartnershipBy Charles Alcock • Managing EditorAugust 26, 2026The European Helicopter Association (EHA) and Vertical Aviation International (VAI) are extending their joint hosting of the annual European Rotors trade show through 2032, they said yesterday.The next staging of European Rotors will be from November 30 to December 3 in Lyon, France, before moving to Milan for the 2027 event. According to VAI and EHA, more than 5,400 attendees are expected this year, as well as 260 exhibiting companies from 70 countries.This week, EHA chairman Fredrik Kämpfe visited VAI’s headquarters in the Washington, D.C. area for discussions with its president and CEO, François Lassale, and the association’s management team. The groups plan to work more closely together to support their combined memberships, which include helicopter operators, manufacturers, and industry professionals in more than 60 countries.“European Rotors has shown what EHA and VAI can build when we work as true partners,” Lassale said. “Continuing this relationship lets us extend that same spirit of collaboration to the bigger questions facing our industry: safety, sustainability, and the future of vertical flight for members on both sides of the Atlantic.”The two associations have been working in tandem on international regulatory issues such as the safe integration of beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations. Other topics covered include electronic conspicuity and the development of practical right-of-way rules for airspace shared by crewed and uncrewed aircraft.Vertical Lift Groups Extend European Rotors Trade Show Partnership | Aviation International News3.TSB: Rotorcraft Prone To Lost Visual Reference AccidentsBy Amy Wilder • WriterAugust 26, 2026Loss-of-visual-reference accidents are more likely to involve helicopters than airplanes, according to a series of Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) investigations. Reviewing 5,177 Canadian airplane and rotorcraft accidents recorded from 2000 to 2021, investigators found a total of 95 involving a loss of visual reference: 68 of 4,378 airplane accidents versus 27 of 799 helicopter accidents—a rate more than double that of airplanes.The TSB has linked part of that disparity to Canadian regulations that do not require commercial helicopter operators to train pilots or equip aircraft to recover from inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC), relying instead on an avoid-at-all-costs strategy that investigators have called unrealistic.Four recommendations were issued by the TSB to Transport Canada as a result of these investigations: require commercial helicopter operators to ensure pilots possess the skills to recover from IIMC; require implementation of technology to assist with IIMC avoidance and recovery; require single-pilot operators under Subpart 604 and Part VII of the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs) to develop SOPs based on corporate knowledge and industry best practices; and enhance requirements for helicopter operators conducting reduced-visibility operations in uncontrolled airspace.Some Canadian operators have voluntarily gone beyond current regulatory minimums, the TSB found. It cited enhanced winter training, close monitoring of pilots for pressure to fly in marginal conditions, simulator-based IIMC recovery training, and dispatching aircraft equipped with radar altimeters and synthetic vision systems as measures already adopted by some operators.The recommendations draw heavily on three recent TSB investigations into VFR helicopter missions that lost visual reference in flat light and whiteout conditions. All three resulted in accidents—one fatal.The TSB also pointed to a gap between helicopter and fixed-wing requirements for reduced-visibility operations in uncontrolled airspace. Rotorcraft may be authorized to operate in visibility as low as half a statute mile below 1,000 feet agl—half the one-statute-mile minimum required of fixed-wing aircraft. Unlike airplane operators under the same authorization, they need not carry an artificial horizon, directional gyro, or GPS, nor complete annual IFR training.Citing the Royal Canadian Air Force, the report noted that one to two hours of annual instrument flight training, ideally supplemented with quarterly training, would give a VFR pilot a chance of surviving an IIMC encounter. From 1988 to 2022, the RCAF recorded 27 helicopter incidents attributed to loss of visual reference or IIMC; in 19 of those, IIMC and instrument flight training, procedures, or instrumentation were credited with contributing to a successful recovery.TSB Canada: Helicopter Loss-of-visual-reference Accidents Twice as Likely | Aviation International News4.Jetcraft Bullish on Preowned Business Aircraft MarketBy Charles Alcock • Managing EditorAugust 25, 2026Jetcraft is bullish on prospects for the preowned business aircraft sector for the remainder of 2026, anticipating balanced growth opportunities in a midyear report issued this week. The broker concluded that the market is emerging more stable from the post-pandemic adjustments that some commentators have interpreted as a slowdown.For the rest of this year, Jetcraft indicated that increased output of new aircraft and changes in tax rules could be key drivers of trading conditions. “Production rates are gradually improving, inventory is beginning to recover in selected segments, and policy changes—including the introduction of 100% bonus depreciation in the U.S.—may encourage additional activity before we ring in a new year,” said CEO Chad Anderson.According to the company, it was both “inevitable and necessary” that the post-Covid surge in demand was curtailed, and in its wake the business aviation market is more robust. “Global wealth continues to expand, international business travel remains resilient, and private aviation has become more firmly established as a productivity tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, and family offices, rather than simply a discretionary luxury.”Jetcraft’s first-half 2026 report made no direct mention of the ongoing military conflicts in the Gulf and Ukraine, or macroeconomic concerns over U.S. government debt and inflationary pressure. However, the company did acknowledge significant variations in mar
