Plane Problems And More In This Week's Beyond Cars Roundup

It’s been a little more than two weeks since Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, spreading devastation across much of the southeast, causing floods, cutting power and killing more than 200 people. Never ones to let a good emergency go to waste or worry about how many people might be hurt by their actions, right-wingers began spreading lies to score political points. While many of the lies aren’t exactly Jalopnik’s purview, the alleged drone ban certainly is, so let’s put an end to that bullshit before Hurricane Milton makes landfall: There is no ban on operating a drone in disaster areas as long as you go through the right channels. - Collin Woodard Read More

On March 8 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished from radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing. The Boeing 777 and its passengers have been missing ever since, with nothing more than a few plane fragments turning up in the decade since the disappearance. Now, a team of researchers has come up with a new way of calculating where the plane may be, and it involves yeeting plane parts into the Indian Ocean in the name of science. - Owen Bellwood Read More

There are certainly worse components on an airplane to malfunction, but if the in-flight entertainment goes down on a 10-hour flight you’re definitely not going to be happy about it. In that situation, would you be more upset if you had to stare at the back of a seat for the duration, or if you were forced to watch an R-rated movie filled with f-bombs and male genitals? - Owen Bellwood Read More

Less than two weeks after the last big storm battered the southern states of America, another is bearing down at a ferocious rate. Hurricane Milton is expected to hit Florida later Wednesday. Evacuation orders are in place and residents being told to protect their homes from flooding as best they can, but while most people run when they see a hurricane, the crew of one aircraft do the exact opposite and fly right to the heart of a storm surge. - Owen Bellwood Read More

A Turkish Airlines flight diverted to New York on Wednesday morning after the captain collapsed and died onboard. The carrier’s Airbus A350 was scheduled to fly from Seattle to Istanbul over and 11-hour flight, however the crew declared an emergency over the Canadian Arctic four hours into the flight and began its diversion to the Big Apple, according to FlightAware. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The category-four Hurricane Milton will make landfall in Florida on Wednesday and is projected to be the worst to strike the state in 100 years. The devastation expected across the peninsula has already impacted NASA’s space operations. The agency delayed the return of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, initially planned for October 7. However, the wait for the mission’s astronauts on the International Space Station won’t be as long as the five-month wait for the Boeing Starliner crew. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Clapping when a flight lands may be a fading tradition, but it’s fully deserved some days. Passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight certainly had a reason for applause on Saturday after the flight from San Diego trailed flames from its landing gear while landing at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. All 190 passengers and seven crew members safely made it to the gate. It’s unclear how the fire started. The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the incident. - Ryan Erik King Read More

St. Petersburg Fire Rescue fished a crashed small plane’s four occupants and a small dog out of the water on Tuesday, a day ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall on Florida’s west coast. With a climbing death toll, the hurricane proved as devastating as feared by meteorologists. The urgent warnings to evacuate from public officials were thankfully heeded by Floridians, including this group of people with access to a single-engine plane. - Ryan Erik King Read More

The last time anyone drove on the Moon was way back in 1972 when the astronauts of Apollo 17 took the Lunar Roving Vehicle for one last spin. Now, NASA is plotting a return to the Moon’s surface that will include taking an all-new lunar rover with it, and it’s just started testing out prototypes for its latest Moon buggy. - Owen Bellwood Read More