Pilot: "Center, N12345." ... Center: "N12345, where have you been? We haven't heard from you in a while." ... Pilot: "I've been in Fort Myers for the last three months or so." ... Center: "N12345 --" [Chuckles.] "No, you've been NORDO for the last 45 minutes; we haven't heard a communication from you. When did you last speak to a controller?" ... Pilot: "I guess 45 minutes ago." -- Susan Delgado, via e-mail

PBS science correspondent and aviation reporter Miles O'Brien lost most of his left arm recently after a freak accident while on assignment in the Phillippines, but last week he was back at work and making plans to fly again. In an interview with Judy Woodruff, O'Brien said he has already spoken to doctors about the options for prosthetics.

Oil slicks that were spotted Sunday near the flight route of the Malaysia Airlines 777 that went missing over the weekend are not from that airplane, officials said Monday morning. Samples of the oil were collected and analyzed and were not jet fuel. Officials said they are expanding the search area for the missing airplane, but will still focus on the Gulf of Thailand, between Malaysia and Vietnam. About three dozen aircraft and 40 ships have been participating in the search.

A 26-year-old California man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for pointing a laser at a police helicopter that was responding to a report of his previous attack on a medevac helicopter. Defense lawyers argued Sergio Patrick Rodriquez, of Clovis in central California, was just goofing around with his kids when he shined the laser at the aircraft.

The pilot of a Cessna 170B and a skydiver escaped a spectacular collision with minor injuries on Saturday at South Lakeland Airport in Florida. The pilot of the 170B, Sharon Trembley, 87, a World War II veteran, was taking off on his third touch-and-go of the beautiful morning when 49-year-old skydiver John Frost landed.

NBC News is reporting that the National Transportation Safety Board law judge has dismissed a civil penalty action brought by the Federal Aviation Administration against a commercial drone operator. The FAA has appealed the order.

Boeing is inspecting the carbon fiber composite wings of 787 Dreamliners for potential hairline cracks that are due to a change in the way the wings are manufactured. The inspections of 42 planes started a few weeks ago after the airplane maker was notified of the problem by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which makes the wings in Japan.

The commander of Malaysia's air force told reporters Sunday radar data shows Flight MH370 may have turned back toward the originating airport at Kuala Lumpur before contact was lost. "What we have done is actually look into the recording on the radar that we have and we realized there is a possibility the aircraft did make a turnback," Rodzali Daud, the Royal Malaysian Air Force chief, told reporters at a news conference.

Bendix King pulls its myWingMan tablet navigation app from the market to focus on other efforts.

With more than 70 employees now employed at its Kerrville, Texas, facility, and about to restart the assembly line to produce the first M20TN Acclaim Type S, Mooney has announced that its management leadership team is in place.

News this week includes Garmin's announcement of new capabilities for G1000-equipped King Airs, and Team AeroDynamix expanding its partnership with Whelen Aviation to provide lighting kits for homebuilt aircraft. Two companies celebrated milestone birthdays, with Zenair Limited turning 40 and Executive Flyers Aviation turning 50.

Sun 'n Fun launches for the 40th time, in Lakeland, Fla., on April 1 -- less than four weeks away -- and with aircraft sales back in positive growth mode, the mood is expected to be upbeat. The event will host its first-ever Job Fair, on Wednesday, April 2, at the Florida Air Museum, with recruiters in search of pilots, engineers, mechanics, flight ops personnel and more. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels will fly Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the popular night airshow is back for Saturday night.

This weekend's aviation events highlight Women of Aviation Worldwide Week with open houses in addition to traditional fly ins for food and camaraderie.

Ten out of every 100 Army helicopter pilots are women -- but they account for only three out of every 100 accidents. That's the bottom line in an Army report that, in an effort to study the impact of women on the front lines, compares accident rates of men and women flying U.S. Army helicopters from 2002 to 2013.

Technology in development at Tufts University in Boston could detect when an air traffic controller's over-tasked brain is nearing the saturation point and instantly redistribute the workload, according to a report this week in the Boston Globe. Computer scientist Robert Jacob and biomedical engineer Sergio Fantini are working together to create a headband that reads brain activity and transmits that data to a computer that can tell if the wearer is bored, fatigued or sharp. The computer could automatically distribute the workload to keep each controller working at peak efficiency.