General aviation safety has come under the spotlight in the USA after the National Transportation Safety Board highlighted the sector in its "Most Wanted" list of areas for improvement.
The NTSB points out that although the nation has not had a fatal large commercial aviation accident since February 2009, last year alone 450 people died in general aviation crashes.
It points out that GA has the highest accident rate of any sector in aviation: six times higher than small commuter and air taxi operators and "over 40 times higher than larger transport category operators".
It added: "Perhaps what is most distressing is that the causes of GA accidents are almost always a repeat of the circumstances of previous accidents."
Improvements to the aircraft, flying environment and pilot performance would all help cut the GA fatality rate, it said, along with improved maintenance and aircraft design that takes issues such as icing into account. Better occupant protection and working emergency locator beacons would also boost survival rates, it added.
However, it focuses on pilot error and training as recurrent problems. "But the best aircraft in the world will not prevent a crash if the pilot is not appropriately trained and prepared for conditions. GA pilots should take initial and recurrent training on the various weather information sources and learn what to do when they inadvertently encounter adverse weather.
"As aircraft become more sophisticated with glass cockpits, GA pilots need to be more than just familiar with the technology; they need to also understand how it can malfunction. An emergency is not the time to be checking a manual to figure out how to adjust the flight display."
In response to the NTSB, Bruce Landsberg, president of the AOPA Foundation, said it was looking forward to working closely with the safety regulator. However, he warned against sweeping generalisations. He said: "There is an understandable tendency to compare GA with the airlines but in most cases, GA flight operations are different in so many ways that the comparison is meaningless.
"General aviation is too diverse, with too many differing skill levels, aircraft and types of operations to take such a monolithic view. And there is still room for improvement in training, equipment, air traffic control procedures and weather dissemination."
He called for more comprehensive and better targeted education for pilots.
The NTSB publishes the "Most Wanted" each year. Other topics highlighted this year include runway safety, fatigue and the under-use of data recorders.
Source: Flight International
