image: USA Today
A report in Monday’s USA Today about the danger of lethal post-crash fires in GA aircraft is “sensationalistic,” according to GAMA President Pete Bunce. “Once again, USA Today‘s Thomas Frank has not told the full story about general aviation aircraft safety,” Bunce said in a statement released Tuesday morning. In the USA Today story, Frank reports that post-crash fires in small aircraft have killed at least 600 people since 1993. “The victims who died from fatal burns or smoke inhalation often had few if any broken bones or other injuries,” Frank wrote. About 308 others died from multiple injuries, including burns and smoke inhalation, and another 309 suffered burns but survived.
The FAA has failed to require fire-prevention features in small aircraft that could have saved lives, such as rupture-proof fuel tanks and upgraded fuel lines, Frank said. The FAA declined to comment for the USA Today story. AOPA on Tuesday called the story “sensationalistic.” The story presents “an incomplete picture of the safety initiatives that are underway,” AOPA said, such as efforts to reform Part 23.Frank’s previous story, “Unfit for Flight,” which ran in USA Today in June, also drew strong response from the GA advocacy groups.
