Judgement failures by pilots remain the leading cause of US general aviation (GA) accidents, says the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Air Safety Foundation (ASF).
A just-completed examination of US accidents in 1997 involving fixed-wing GA aircraft under 5,670kg (12,500lb) gross weight shows that 74% of all accidents and 71% of fatal accidents had pilot-related causes, says the ASF.
"As in previous years, the leading causes of 1997 fatalities were continued VFR [visual flight rules] flight into instrument conditions and low-level manoeuvring flight," says the ASF.
Its latest safety report highlights these findings:
· 19.5% of all fatal pilot-related accidents involved weather, and more than 82% of fatal weather-related accidents involved VFR flight into instrument conditions;
· more than 25% of all fatal accidents involved manoeuvring flight, and almost half of all fatal manoeuvring accidents occurred during low, slow flight - 64% during personal flights;
· mechanical and maintenance matters accounted for 14% of all accidents, and fuel mismanagement for over 10% of incidents.
Business flying continued to be safer than personal flying, says the ASF. Owner-flown business flying accounted for over 14% of all GA activity, but less than 4% of accidents. Personal flights accounted for 42% of flying, but 64% of accidents. The safety gap widened further last year, according to preliminary figures from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Business flying accident numbers fell by more than 8% last year, while personal flying accidents rose by almost 10%.
The NTSB says 1998 was the safest year yet for US general aviation. The estimated fatal accident rate fell 3.6% compared with 1997, to 1.35 per 100,000h. There were 361 fatal GA accidents in the USA last year.
Source: Flight International
