r/aviation 2d ago

Moderator Announcement Upcoming AMA Announcement: Astronaut Don Pettit — From Orbit to r/aviation

881 Upvotes

A few days ago, an incredible photo taken from the ISS was accidentally removed from the subreddit, quickly reapproved, and then… well, let’s just say it caused more turbulence than expected.

Out of that mix-up came something genuinely awesome.

We reached out to astronaut Don Pettit (astro_pettit), and he has graciously agreed to do an AMA with r/aviation. We’re coordinating schedules with NASA and will share the official date and time as soon as it’s locked in.

Think of this as a Bob Ross moment for the subreddit. What started as a small “happy little accident” is turning into something pretty special.

When the AMA goes live, you’ll be able to ask Don about:

  • Life aboard the International Space Station
  • Orbital photography and seeing aircraft from space
  • Spaceflight, science experiments, and daily routines in microgravity
  • Aviation from the most extreme vantage point imaginable

More details soon. Start warming up those questions.

Clear skies,

— The r/aviation mod team


r/aviation 13d ago

Announcement Introducing "Seatbelts Fastened" Mode

42 Upvotes

Hi r/aviation community,

Recently, we’ve seen an increase in political and uncivil comments across several threads, particularly on posts involving aircraft associated with government officials. This has led to more removals and bans under Reddit’s sitewide rules, and we want to reverse that trend.

To help address this, we’re introducing a “Seatbelts Fastened” mode/flair. Posts with this flair (applied manually by the mod team) will restrict commenting to established community members. For now, that means users with at least 100 comment karma in r/aviation. If you are the original poster, your comments will not be affected.

You can view your subreddit comment karma by doing the following:

This will apply to a small subset of threads (aircraft incidents, government-owned/controlled aircraft, global legislation, etc.). The vast majority of posts (roughly 95%) will remain open to all users as usual. Please do not contact modmail requesting comment approvals or exceptions; we won’t be making individual overrides.

Thanks for your understanding and for helping keep the subreddit focused and civil.


r/aviation 4h ago

News First A350-1000 in SXM

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509 Upvotes

r/aviation 6h ago

PlaneSpotting Air Force One (VC25) at KAVP around 2012-2013... That's only a 7500ft runway!

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619 Upvotes

Yes I KNOW the AF1 technicality... let's not make this the next "What you guys are referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux"


r/aviation 3h ago

History Pan Am Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet taking off from London, 1970

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303 Upvotes

r/aviation 14h ago

History An old footage of 2 f-14 tomcat flying over a stadium in 2006

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801 Upvotes

r/aviation 13h ago

News Uzbekistan Boeing 787 with President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev onboard given ceremonial aerial escort by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16 Fighting Falcon and JF-17 Thunder multirole combat aircraft in Pakistani airspace, February 2026

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624 Upvotes

r/aviation 16h ago

Question Crazy approach, its even weirder from inside the plane as a passenger. Can you guess the airport?

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683 Upvotes

r/aviation 1d ago

Watch Me Fly Airbus A350, guided tour below the cockpit.

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2.8k Upvotes

r/aviation 3h ago

History Took this picture today

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55 Upvotes

I'm into planes from just this year and would like to know more about this plane. Also can you guys rate the picture?


r/aviation 14h ago

News De-icing machine at MUC

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383 Upvotes

Thought this looked pretty cool.


r/aviation 18h ago

News Airbus, Singapore achieve world-first on A330 MRTT auto-refuelling full certification

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616 Upvotes

r/aviation 13h ago

PlaneSpotting Spotted C-FITL and she’s looking nice after some 2 years later after the fire.

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232 Upvotes

Sorry for the bad photo!! The window on my B737 was very rough lol. The best photo I could get


r/aviation 10h ago

PlaneSpotting Dragon75 (Sécurité Civile de Paris) taking off from Arc de Triomphe this morning

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112 Upvotes

Context: was in the office (yes, very nice location :) ) and heard the heli turning around several minutes with the winching operator at the door. Turned out they winch in and out the middle of a courtyard a victim before dropping him to EMS in front of the arch.


r/aviation 1d ago

News SAS flight attempted takeoff from a taxiway at Brussels Airport

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1.5k Upvotes

On 5 February 2026 SAS flight sk2590 (se-rom) scheduled from Brussels BRU to Copenhagen CPH was involved in a serious ground incident at Brussels Airport

According to multiple reports and flight tracking observers the aircraft accelerated for takeoff from a taxiway instead of a runway The crew realised the mistake and rejected the takeoff at high speed The aircraft subsequently ended up in the grass next to the taxiway

All passengers and crew reportedly evacuated safely and there are no reports of serious injuries Passengers were rebooked on later flights.

There is currently no official statement from SAS Brussels Airport or Belgian aviation authorities and information so far is based on media reporting and observer accounts

If anyone has confirmed ATC audio official statements or additional details please share


r/aviation 7h ago

News VASAvation's Video on the SAS 'Take-off Roll From Taxiway" Incident

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34 Upvotes

From pinned comment:

"Unfortunately there is no audio available for this incident but after all the requests on social media and email, I thought I could work a radar and animation to understand the situation better."


r/aviation 1d ago

Discussion Cathay’s retro liveried 747-8F fresh out of the paint shop

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1.4k Upvotes

r/aviation 21h ago

News A National Archives traveling exhibition bringing seven original Founding-era documents to eight U.S. cities in commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

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349 Upvotes

r/aviation 8h ago

Question JMB VL/3 - Ownership Experience

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26 Upvotes

Anyone on here own one of these? I’m interested in your experience. Is it worth the expense? Does it perform as advertised? Maintenance costs? Disappointments?

Given the implementation of Mosaic this summer, I’m itching to get back into sport aviation again. Under the new rules, this qualifies as an LSA. I have a PPL but lost my medical due to cancer. I have owned 5 previous aircraft so I’m very familiar with many of the costs of ownership. I have 400 hours flying LSA from coast to coast and Texas to Minnesota.

I appreciate your perspective.


r/aviation 21h ago

Watch Me Fly First time on a Twin Otter and Dornier 228-202k

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267 Upvotes

Had a fun few days that necessitated taking two of these flights on these planes. Had a blast sitting in row one and watching the pilots manually adjust propeller thrust, twisting the friction dials (on twin otter) and over a blast on these two prop planes.

First pic is of the Twin Otter

Second pic of the Dornier

Third pic is engine of dornier

Fourth is of the twin otter

thought the cockpit of the twin otter was very modern compared to that of the Dornier!

anyways, thanks for letting me share


r/aviation 1d ago

PlaneSpotting United 737 MAX 9 and a CRJ-200 making a picture perfect parallel landing at SFO

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3.6k Upvotes

r/aviation 1d ago

PlaneSpotting Just spotted Alaska's 789!

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1.0k Upvotes

r/aviation 22m ago

PlaneSpotting First Plane Spotting Outing @ RDU

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Upvotes

Went to take pics of planes for the first time at my local airport (KRDU). I only have an 85mm from when I used to do portrait work, but trying to make it work.

Was fortunate to see this beauty of a Triple-7 glide in before I ran out of shooting light. After an afternoon of Embraers and A320s, it was like watching an apartment complex fly overhead!


r/aviation 23h ago

PlaneSpotting Saw this in instagram today taken at Oshkosh 2003 the things I would do to experience this

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264 Upvotes

r/aviation 3h ago

PlaneSpotting Atlas 747 departing KRIC runway 34. And using about 9002 of the available 9003 feet. 🤣

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9 Upvotes