Air taxi and Part 135 operators also improve, with fewer crashes and fatalities
General aviation in the USA last year experienced its lowest number of accidents and fatal accidents in the past 40 years, and the air taxi sector reduced its accident rate by roughly 20%, according to the annual accident survey published by the US National Transportation Safety Board.
The NTSB tallied 1,515 accidents in the sector during 2006, with 698 fatalities occurring as a result of 303 of the accidents. The numbers are down 9% from a total of 1,669 accidents in 2005, and lower by almost 6% from 2005's 321 fatal accidents.
The accident rate - the number of accidents divided by the total flight time for GA operations - also decreased in 2006. The NTSB revealed an accident rate of 6.64 accidents per 100,000 flight hours last year, compared with 7.2 in 2005. The fatal accident rate also declined, down to 1.32 per 100,000 flight hours in 2006 from 1.38 in 2005. The reduction came despite the fact that the GA community flew fewer hours last year, a trend that has been occurring since 1990. Overall, the NTSB says GA hours have decreased 20% since 1990.
By contrast, on-demand Part 135 operators flew more hours and reported an almost 20% reduction in accidents last year, with 54 accidents and a 1.5 accidents per 100,000 hour rate, compared with 2.02 in 2005. Ten fatal accidents caused 16 deaths, resulting in a fatal accident rate of 0.28 per 100,000h. Part 135 accidents claimed 18 lives in 2005.
For the small portion of Part 135 operations considered to be scheduled services, the accident rate was 1.1 and 0.36 accidents and fatal accidents per 100,000h, respectively.
Source: Flight International
