Aviation Safety: The Experience of General Aviation

General aviation is an important segment of the aviation industry encompassing more than 700,000 pilots who fly over 30,000,000 hours annually in over 200,000 aircraft. General aviation also experienced well over 13,000 fatalities between 1975 and 1985, an average of over 11 people killed for each person killed in an accident by a U.S. scheduled jet carrier. Not surprisingly, general aviation is perceived as less safe than either jet carriers or commuters, yet far less attention has been paid to general aviation safety than to scheduled carrier safety. This paper examines safety in general aviation by analyzing the causes of over 9,000 general aviation accidents that occurred in the United States between 1983 and 1986 using data collected by the National Transportation Safety Board. Records of individual accidents are examined to determine the initial cause of the accidents. General aviation safety is then compared with other segments of the aviation industry. The differences are examined in light of differences in regulatory and operating practices, pilot training and experience, aircraft performance capabilities, maintenance practices, and other factors.