Flight Follower covers aviation incidents through a combination of air traffic control recordings, public investigation records, official reports and other reliable sources.
We distinguish documented facts from preliminary reports and unresolved circumstances. When an investigation has established a probable cause, we report the finding rather than presenting our own theory as fact.
Publicly available recordings are used to reconstruct the operational sequence. Maps, animation and written explanations are Flight Follower editorial work intended to make the sequence understandable without changing what the underlying record establishes.
Before an article is published, its core facts — aircraft type and registration, date, location, people involved and the outcome — are checked against the primary record: the investigation report or docket where one exists, the FAA aircraft registry, and independent contemporary reporting. Drafts whose key facts cannot be independently corroborated are not published. When checking finds an error in a draft, the draft is corrected before publication; when an error is found after publication, it is handled under our Corrections Policy.
Articles are written in our own words. Investigation reports are summarised and explained rather than reproduced; where we quote a report, a controller or a pilot directly, the words are in quotation marks and attributed, and the source is linked in the article’s source list.
These are accounts of real events, many involving injury or loss of life. We avoid sensational language, we do not publish graphic imagery, and we do not assign blame beyond what the official findings support.
When the available records do not establish a cause, we say so. We do not invent timestamps, aircraft details, investigative findings or causal explanations to fill gaps.
Articles may be updated when authoritative information changes or when a factual error is identified. Material corrections are handled under our Corrections Policy.
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