Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
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kyracloudy.bsky.social
Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
@kyracloudy.bsky.social
3K followers 40 following 340 posts
Aviation writer Admiral Cloudberg 🏳️‍⚧️
Controlled Pod Into Terrain cohost
Mentour Pilot script writer/researcher
https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@ControlledPodIntoTerrain
Posts Replies Media Videos
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Not a plane crash but I saw a cool mushroom today.
December 14, 2025 at 11:02 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
It's time for the article you've all hopefully been waiting for. Enjoy my dive into a part of the aviation industry that respectable experts ignore! admiralcloudberg.medium.com/dark-network...
Dark Networks: The 2003 Timor-Leste Il-76 crash and the global air cargo shadow industry
How the crash of a Russian cargo plane at a remote airfield provides a glimpse into an aviation underworld that we aren’t meant to see.
admiralcloudberg.medium.com
December 14, 2025 at 12:07 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
The text of my article on the 2003 Timor-Leste Il-76 crash is done. I'll be uploading it late in the day on Saturday the 13th (early Sunday the 14th if you live in the eastern hemisphere). I can't believe I spent over a month thinking about this story, but it just would not stop.
December 13, 2025 at 10:26 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
So, if you're someone who follows the bureaucratic side of aviation safety, you probably already know about this, but if you aren't, you might not. This is something that I feel the need to raise awareness about. (1/10)
December 11, 2025 at 7:43 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
After weeks of development hell, my most ambitious Mentour Pilot script to date has finally seen the light of day. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0B4...
Litany of LIES! | The Mount Erebus Disaster
YouTube video by Mentour Pilot
www.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
You know an article is gonna be weird when I spend most of the first 2.5 pages explaining the history of the country where it takes place
December 5, 2025 at 5:38 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Teaser for my upcoming article (and the answer to my earlier hint).
On the 31st of January 2003, a huge four-engine Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crashed just short of the poorly developed airstrip in the town of Baucau, Timor-Leste, killing all six crewmembers. The crash was briefly noted by world news sources but never made headlines, nor would it have been likely to do so, because accidents like it happen all the time. Cargo flights into remote and impoverished warzones on behalf of short-lived paper companies form a dangerous but essential underworld of the global aviation industry, bringing crucial supplies and humanitarian aid into some of the most desperate places on earth, while simultaneously supporting a shadow industry of arms trafficking, human smuggling, tax evasion, and other criminal enterprises. These flights crash with alarming regularity, but almost all of these accidents are never properly investigated and very little is known about them—sometimes basic facts such as the number of people killed, their identities, and even whether the crash happened at all are left up for debate. Due to a fortuitous geopolitical happenstance, the crash in Timor-Leste in 2003 did not meet that fate. The government of the tiny, newly independent island nation instead invited Australia to investigate the cause of the crash and publish a final report, shedding light on the realities of these fly-by-night freight operations, as well as the difficult circumstances and poor decision-making that doomed the six crew of the enormous Ilyushin. The investigation also provided a starting point for me to dig into the history of the owners and operators of the aircraft, in an effort to understand who was responsible for the flight and their possible connections to the broader industry of clandestine cargo. What I found was a confusing maze of shell companies, conflicting records, leases and sub-leases and re-registrations. And by the end, one thing was clear: whoever owned this plane didn’t want to be found.
December 2, 2025 at 4:44 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Figured I'd drop a hint about my next article: It takes place in a country that has never previously been mentioned in any previous articles.
November 11, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
flightradar24.com
Boeing recommends MD-11s suspend operations “while additional engineering analysis is performed,” as the investigation into the crash of #5X2976 continues. The recommendation affects 54 active MD-11s across 3 airlines. www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviatio...
FedEx MD-11 departing Anchorage UPS MD-11 departing Anchorage Western Global MD-11 in Taipei
November 8, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
flightradar24.com
❗️UPS is grounding its MD-11(F) fleet with immediate effect at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer.

There are currently 26 MD-11s in the UPS fleet of 294 total aircraft. www.flightradar24.com/data/airline...
Out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of safety, we have made the decision to temporarily ground our MD-11 fleet. MD-11s are approximately 9% of the UPS Airlines fleet. The grounding is effective immediately. We made this decision proactively at the recommendation of the aircraft manufacturer. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our employees and the communities we serve. Contingency plans are in place to ensure we can continue to deliver the reliable service our customers around the world count on. List of UPS MD-11 aircraft from the Flightradar24 fleet list.
November 8, 2025 at 5:34 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
The scale of the Louisville crash scene is mind-boggling. Massive props to everyone currently working on this horrible tragic mess.
November 6, 2025 at 12:53 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
My thoughts are with the victims of today's UPS plane crash, but they are also with the NTSB investigators who, tomorrow, will dig through half a mile of toxic debris to find the black boxes, all without being paid. Godspeed to them as well.
November 5, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
bnonews.com
BREAKING: Video shows crash of UPS Flight 2976 while taking off from Louisville International Airport in Kentucky
November 4, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Kyra Dempsey - Admiral Cloudberg
bnonews.com
BREAKING: UPS cargo plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes near Louisville International Airport in Kentucky
November 4, 2025 at 10:43 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
In my latest contribution to Mentour Pilot, Petter and I re-examine the evidence from an accident from 27 years ago in light of current aviation science: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y__D...
A NEW Theory! Uncovering The Truth Of Austral 2553
YouTube video by Mentour Pilot
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:16 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
New article is out! Read this harrowing story here: admiralcloudberg.medium.com/four-minutes...
Four Minutes over Mexico: The crash of Mexicana flight 940
In 1986, 167 people died when a Mexican airliner caught fire and exploded over Michoacán. A full accounting of the causes is yet to be…
admiralcloudberg.medium.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:31 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
My Mexicana 940 article is on track to release tomorrow! (US Pacific time)
October 22, 2025 at 2:35 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Found a new meme template in the B727 ops manual.
Me when the FO starts talking about politics:
October 18, 2025 at 7:31 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Update! So, having scoured the final report and the internet for everything I could fine on Mexicana 940, there just isn't that much. I do have some things to say about it, so I will still be writing an article. (1/2)
October 18, 2025 at 4:58 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
New Mentour Pilot video by yours truly: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKPr...
The Collision that Changed Aviation | PSA flight 182
YouTube video by Mentour Pilot
www.youtube.com
October 11, 2025 at 6:28 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
Hi everyone! I'm ramping things back up after a hectic three weeks. I'm currently working on an English copy of the final report on Mexicana de Aviacion flight 940, which I expect will be my next article, though if the report contains insufficient information I do have backups in place.
October 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
I visited my favorite plane again, this time with my podcast cohost @ariadneinbizclass.bsky.social! (That's me on the right, Ari on the left, and the glorious An-2 in the background)
September 28, 2025 at 12:01 AM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
The T-rex is just me
qwantz.com Dinosaur Comics! @qwantz.com · Sep 19
"what you say with irony i say with sincerity" is a paraphrase of captain picard talking to q. but you are always allowed to paraphrase captain picard talking to q; it's always morally correct

www.qwantz.com/index.php?co...
T-Rex: Time for me to spend some time doing my favourite hobby: learning... Off panel: Nice! T-Rex: ...about PLANE CRASHES! You didn't let me finish, Dromiceiomimus! Dromiceiomimus: You uh - you ENJOY learning about people dying, T-Rex? T-Rex: They don't ALWAYS die! Besides, what I'm really learning about is SAFETY and TECHNOLOGY. Every time a plane crashes we discover what went wrong and then change technology, training, AND/OR systems so that can't happen again! Utahraptor: I guess that could be reassuring! T-Rex: It IS!! T-Rex: The first crashes were all "Oh the wings SHOULD stay on, whoopsie, our bad" but today a whole SET of things all have to go wrong, IN PARALLEL, AND in some novel unforeseen way, for a crash to happen. Utahraptor: But - they still happen, dude. T-Rex: AND WE FIX 'EM!! T-Rex: We decided "no plane should ever crash again", and we've trying our level best to make that happen ever since, and that is BEAUTIFUL. Off panel: I'll think of that if I'm ever on a crashing plane. T-Rex: ME TOO!! What you say with irony I say with sincerity!
September 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
New Mentour Pilot video by me! www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK_7...
The Passengers got NO Warning!.. | ALM flight 980
YouTube video by Mentour Pilot
www.youtube.com
September 20, 2025 at 3:06 PM
kyracloudy.bsky.social
And my article is out! This case has fascinated me like few others. admiralcloudberg.medium.com/crucible-of-...
Crucible of the Cascade: The crash of Gazpromavia flight 9608
How maintenance and design errors led to a fateful battle between a Russian flight crew and a deadly automation “cascade.”
admiralcloudberg.medium.com
September 14, 2025 at 2:39 AM