Posted at 9 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2014
General aviation is far more dangerous than regularly scheduled commercial aviation. But datareleased Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board show that general aviation has gotten safer over the past 20 years.
Weekend and recreational flyers and non-scheduled corporate flights are included in the general aviation category.
The accident rate for regularly scheduled air carriers in 2013 was 0.117 per 100,000 flight hours, according to the NTSB data released Monday. The accident rate for general aviation was 50 times higher — 5.85 accidents per 100,000 flight hours.
There were only 20 accidents for commercial aviation, compared to 1,222 for general aviation in 2013.
But measured by the rate of all accidents, by the rate of fatal accidents, and by the total number of fatalities, general aviation was significantly less risky last year than it was in 1994.
The total number of general aviation deaths fell from 730 in 1994 to 387 last year.
The total accident rate for general aviation was 36 percent lower in 2013 than in 1994 and the fatal accident rate was 42 percent lower.
The NTSB stirred controversy in the general aviation community last week when it released astudy of pilot drug use, based on toxicology analyses of more than 6,600 fatally injured pilots, most of them general aviation pilots.
In questioning the study, Mark Baker, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said, “The number of general aviation accidents has declined significantly over the past decade.”
Monday’s NTSB data show that Baker was correct.
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