Crashes and Other Accidents: You can look up airplane crashes and other accidents using the government-sponsored Aviation Accident Database at www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/query.asp; links to additional information are posted at www.ntsb.gov/aviation/aviation.htm. Preliminary data is posted at www.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm.
Leasing: The treatise Equipment Leasing (Lexis/Nexis) has two chapters on Aircraft Leasing. Sample aircraft lease forms are included in American Jurisprudence Legal Forms 2d, West's Legal Forms and Nichols Cyclopedia of Legal Forms Annotated (all Thomson/West).
Legal: Aircraft Finance: Registration, Security and Enforcement (Sweet & Maxwell) provides a chapter on the laws for each country.
Owner Look-Up: Knowx.com, Accurint, Westlaw (AIRCRAFT) and Lexis (ASSETS;ARCFT) all have searchable national aircraft owner registration databases based on FAA data. Lexis also has aircraft registrations databases for selected foreign countries (in the FINDER and NON-US libraries). Information on how to register a plane with the FAA is posted by the FAA's Civil Aviation Registry (http://registry.faa.gov/registry.htm).
Pictures: Airliners.Net offers pictures of thousands of airplanes.
Pilots Licenses: You can search to see if an individual holds a pilot's license on Lexis (LICENSE;PILOTS), Westlaw (AIRCRAFT), Accurint and KnowX (in the FAA Airmen Directory). Information about U.S. pilot licenses ("permanent airmen certificates") is posted on the FAA's Civil Aviation Registry.
Tracking Flights: You can find out whether a flight is on schedule for takeoff and/or landing using FlightStats and on similar services through airline web sites. You can track the progress of an airplane from takeoff to landing using the free "FlightTracker" feature on Trip.com. The FlightTracker uses FAA radar data, with less than a one minute delay.