The US National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on aviation accidents in 2013 shows accidents involving operations under Federal Air Regulations Part 135 increased compared with the previous year.
Scheduled commuter operators suffered eight accidents in 2013 – three of them fatal, compared with four in 2012. On-demand Part 135 operations, which include charter, air taxi, air tour, and air medical flights, showed increases in all categories in 2013. The number of total accidents was 44, fatal accidents ten, and fatalities 27. These figures are all up, with the accident rate per 100,000 flight hours increased to 1.24 from 0.99 in 2012.
Meanwhile the NTSB says general aviation accidents have decreased by all measures compared with 2012. The total number dropped by 249 in 2013, bringing the number to 1,222. The number of fatal accidents was 221 – resulting in 387 fatalities – and the accident rate dropped to 5.85 per 100,000 flight hours.
The agency says that although there has been a decrease in accidents involving scheduled commercial airlines operating under Part 121, the first fatal accident in three years occurred on 14 August 2013, when UPS Airlines flight 1354, an Airbus A300-600, crashed on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Alabama, killing the two pilots.
The crash of Asiana Airlines flight 214 at San Francisco is not reported in these statistics, the NTSB says, because it is a foreign-registered carrier operating under Part 129.
Source: Flight International
