Max Trescott and Rob Mark connect a string of very different accidents with one shared theme: safety margin usually disappears one “reasonable” choice at a time—until the airplane (or the environment) collects the debt.

They open with a major development: the NTSB’s urgent recommendation to Textron after two fatal post-maintenance stall test flights in Hawker business jets. Max and Rob explain why stall testing in swept-wing jets can be uniquely unforgiving, and why “unacceptable stall characteristics” should make every pilot sit up straight. The takeaway: if a flight requires test-pilot skills, then “maintenance requires it” doesn’t make it safe—it demands the right training, the right crew, and the right conditions.

Max then shares NTSB news: a public board meeting on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. ET to determine probable cause for the January 29, 2025 midair collision over the Potomac River near Reagan National (PSA CRJ700 and an Army UH-60L Black Hawk). Max and Rob will be watching closely and will share clips in a future episode.

From there they break down recent accidents and reports, including: the Dassault Falcon 50, 9H-DFS, crash near Haymana, Turkey; an MD530F helicopter, N3502P, near Superior, Arizona where a slackline/highline may have been a factor; a TBM 700, N700PT, near Monroe, Wisconsin involving an approach continued below minimums; the Hawker 900XP, N900VA, fatal post-maintenance stall test crash; a Cessna P210, N1400, fuel exhaustion accident in San Diego in IMC with low recent flying; and a Bonanza G36, N360FV, near Tracy, California that illustrates the engine-emergency dilemma: choose the ugly, certain option—or gamble for the “better” airport you might not reach.