AvTalk Episode 350: “Outrageous:” close calls near Venezuela
AvTalk - Aviation Podcast
Flightradar24
4.8 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy had choice words for Congress after legislation weakening airspace protections put in place in the wake of January’s crash in Washington DC passed as part of the NDAA. But the Senate has now passed the ROTOR Act, which seeks to further strengthen those protections. We discuss what this might mean for aircraft operators in the US over the next few years.
Elsewhere, Spirit Airlines is still operating and a merger with Frontier is back on the table… again. A sun visor detached on a Malta Air 737 leading to an engine shutdown. And Lufthansa received an offer from the US Air Force it couldn’t refuse and will now say goodbye to a pair of 747-8Is in 2026.
Thank you for listening!
Thank you so much for listening to AvTalk! Like the podcast? Have suggestions for future shows? Let us know by leaving a review or comment on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Reviews on iTunes not only help us make a better show, they help more people find the podcast! Want to send us additional feedback, just email us. And tell that friend who asked you for a podcast recommendation that AvTalk is the one they want to listen to next.
Please click here for a transcript of this week’s episode.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 350 of AvTalk. I am Ian Petchinic here as always with. |
| 0:16.9 | Jason Rabinowitz, and Ian, it is the first time I'm home sitting in front of my actual microphone |
| 0:23.9 | to record this podcast in a month, I think. It's nice. Our listeners, thank you. Yes, for this |
| 0:30.3 | 350th episode, the A350 episode for when you want a generic code and don't know if you're going to |
| 0:36.8 | operate the 350,900 or want the big boy for the 1,000. You'll figure it out later. Absolutely. This is |
| 0:44.2 | the extra wide episode, Jason. Excellent. I'm not sure what that means, but we're going to lean into it. |
| 0:50.2 | Well, it's an extra wide plane, apparently. It is. We are recording on December 17th, which holds all sorts of significance for aviation |
| 1:01.8 | history. We've got starting with the first flight, December 17th, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. I absolutely love the naming of places. |
| 1:16.5 | I like that people went somewhere and said, this will be Kill Devil Hills. |
| 1:22.1 | And we're going to fly from the top of it. |
| 1:27.0 | Marking the first flight by the right flyer, the first few flights only covering hundreds |
| 1:35.2 | of feet and tens of seconds, and then working all the way up to, well, the A350, which can fly antipodal almost. |
| 1:46.8 | And everything in between. |
| 1:49.0 | We've come a long way. |
| 1:51.1 | But Jason, did you know that December 17th is also the anniversary of the first flight of |
| 1:57.1 | the DC3? |
| 1:59.1 | Which you could often look back and say, wow, the DC3 is 90 years old. |
| 2:03.8 | That's almost as old in the grand scheme of things as aviation is as a whole at this point. |
| 2:10.3 | The first flight of the DC3 was 32 years after the first flight of an airplane, period. |
| 2:21.3 | And 32 years ago, if you were flying, you probably could have been doing that on an |
| 2:26.4 | A320. I think there are 32 year old A320s actually out there still flying right now, |
| 2:32.3 | probably with Delta. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Flightradar24, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Flightradar24 and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.