A recent video of a T-6 race, filmed at close range from the home pylon, reminded me why aviation fascinates me: the sound, the speed and the skill. It comes from blancolirio, a YouTube channel run by Juan Browne.
The pilot behind the channel
Browne bought his first airplane at 15, earned his mechanic’s licence right after high school and went to college on an ROTC scholarship. In the Air Force he taught new pilots to fly, then became an aircraft commander on the C-141 transport, flying around the world with air-to-air refuelling. He later flew the C-130 with the Reno Air National Guard before joining an airline, where he has flown the Boeing 777. Along the way he also fought fires with the US Forest Service, and he flies vintage aircraft such as his 1946 Luscombe.
Beyond accidents
The channel is much wider than crash analysis. Browne films air racing, gives advice to private pilots, reports on incidents and follows wildfire aviation in California. What connects it all is a pilot’s eye: he explains what is happening in the cockpit and why.
Learning from accidents
Accident analysis is what made him best known, and the latest example is the fatal overrun of a 21 Air cargo Boeing 767 at Miami International Airport on 6 September 2026. Five people were killed and five injured. The day after, Browne published a long analysis based on public sources such as flight tracking, weather radar, air traffic control recordings and the NTSB’s press briefing, and he said which facts were still missing. When the NTSB released the flight recorder data, he followed up with a second video. The NTSB investigation is still ongoing, and no cause has been named.
The view from his own plane
His breakout came in February 2017, when the spillways of California’s Oroville Dam were damaged and more than 180,000 people living downstream were evacuated. Browne flew over the site in his 1946 Luscombe with a GoPro camera and posted the video the next day. It has passed 500,000 views. His regular reports on the repair over the following months were later credited by Practical Engineering as citizen journalism.
The channel shows its sources and separates what is known from what is not. Browne is an airline pilot working from public data, not an investigator, and final NTSB findings take far longer. The channel is supported by viewer subscriptions, merchandise and affiliate deals. Watch blancolirio on YouTube.
Key Takeaways
- blancolirio is run by Juan Browne, a former Air Force pilot who now works as an airline pilot.
- It covers far more than accidents: racing, incidents, pilot advice, wildfire aviation and his own flights.
- His coverage of the latest accident, the Miami overrun, uses public sources and marks what is not yet known.
- The NTSB investigation into the Miami overrun is still open.
Sources: NTSB investigation page, NTSB media briefing 2 (video), Aviation Herald report.
Photo: Rhys Abel via Pexels