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April 20, 2007
General Aviation Safety
I wanted to know how dangerous the type of flying Rebecca and I might be interested in is. I'm speaking of General Aviation, specifically light, small aircraft, on a recreational or hobby basis. These stats exclude commercial airline flight. A lot of the general population "feels" like being a private pilot is very dangerous. I wanted to know as objectively as possible how dangerous it really is. I would consider my observations below to be good within +/- 20%. This data is based on the Nall report and my own calculations. It's significant to me, but others should not cite this data as I only pulled it together in under an hour. In 2006:
1 accident in every 14,000 hours of flying
1 fatal accident in every 71,000 hours of flying (a little less than 2 people die per fatal accident)
An average non-commercial pilot flies less than 40 hours per year.
The highest category of fatal accidents is poor pilot judgment: low-flying (buzzing) and attempting higher risk maneuvers.
Student pilots are the safest category of pilot, followed by airline pilots. The most dangerous, although still acceptably safe to me, are your first 500 hours of flight after being a student. This would be reduced with two pilots in the aircraft at one time (pat of the reason Rebecca and I are interested together).
Comparatively speaking, estimates place general aviation flying as about 20 times more dangerous per hour spent operating the plane/car, and 5 times more dangerous per mile traveled. In contrast, airline flight is less dangerous per mile than driving.
As for risk per person who decides to fly vs. per person who decides to drive, insurance premiums might be a worthy measure. Insurance on a four-seat plane is about the same as insurance on a mid-priced SUV. This stat also emphasizes how aviation is more dangerous per hour, but somewhere more equivalent on a "per person who decides to do each activity" basis.
Posted by Jeff at April 20, 2007 09:45 AM
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Comments
Vyduna, stop analyzing and just fly the god-damned plane already.
Posted by: Sean Eby at April 20, 2007 01:57 PM