The NTSB Wednesday released its preliminary annual aviation statistics for 2010, and while U.S. scheduled Part 121 airlines and Part 135 commuters suffered zero recorded fatalities, GA’s numbers, though improved, were less fortunate. Year over year, general aviation accidents declined. Out of 1435 GA accidents in 2010, 267 were fatal, resulting in 450 deaths, including three on the ground. On-demand operators, a category that includes medical, charter, air taxi, and air tour flights, saw an overall decrease in accidents from 47 in 2009 to 31 in 2010, but that trend went against the segment’s fatality statistics. On-demand operators suffered an increase from two fatal accidents in 2009 to six in 2010.
U.S. general aviation logged 20.9 million flight hours in 2010, according to the NTSB, and recorded 6.86 accidents per 100,000 hours. Fatalities for the segment were recorded as 1.27 per 100,000 flight hours. That tops the charts. On-demand operations recorded 1.05 accidents per 100,000 flight hours with a corresponding fatality rate of 0.2. That accident rate bests that of commuter operations, which recorded 1.899 accidents per 100,000 hours but left no fatalities. You can review the report yourself online, here.
