We've all had them: those flights that challenge the plan from the moment the wheels leave the ground. That's when distraction and frustration open the door for error. Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/12/dont-stop-now/.

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The fundamentals of flight planning do not change, as this classic close call from 2008 demonstrates. A first flight in a new type was a fuel management challenge a young pilot nearly failed. Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/12/tanks-for-nothing/.

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The textbook reactions of a low-hours pilot facing a deteriorating situation show how ab initio training works – if you listen and take its messages seriously. 

Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/11/fast-thinking-fledging/.

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Almost too late, a young pilot learns the importance of assertiveness as part of flight control.

Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/10/blundering-through-the-authority-gap/

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An insidious and subtle failure almost bring's a young commercial pilot's career to a premature end.

Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/08/reality-under-pressure/.

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Using your ears is a much less stressful way to maintain separation than relying on your eyes alone.

Read this close call at: https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/062/silent-scream/.

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Flight Safety Australia reader Nic Barnes discovers conditions are different in northern Australia.

Read this close call at: https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/03/a-brutal-hazing/.

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Audio adds a new dimension to this anonymous  first officer's close call, first published in 2021.

Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/05/positive-climb/.

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Nothing emphasises the importance of flight planning like that knotted feeling in your gut when you have failed to do it. This pilot got that feeling when a cascade of minor circumstances overwhelmed a superficial plan. Read this close call at https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/01/flight-planning-fail/.

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The source of anxiety was in, or rather on, the pilot's face. But impatience was an even more effective blindfold.

Read this close call at: https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2025/02/double-blind/.

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The elements humble a newly qualified pilot.

Read this close call at: https://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2024/03/earth wind and water/

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