NBAA Responds to General Media Goofs

NBAA tells ANN that "three recent high profile aviation accidents have resulted in dramatically increased media attention on the safety of business aviation. NBAA has responded aggressively to the media regarding business aviation safety and these efforts have prevented a number of misleading and/or inaccurate stories. In addition, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen has personally appeared on CNBC and defended business aviation’s excellent safety record."

Unfortunately, NBAA notes that one national news organization, ABC News, ran a story on November 29 which stated that the fatal accident rate of “corporate aviation is 2.5 times greater than the major airlines.” ABC added that “the fatal accident rate for charters…is more than 50 times higher than that of the commercial airlines.”

NBAA says that the basis for ABC’s statements are statistics developed by the FAA, "which we believe inappropriately include a broad spectrum of general aviation aircraft in their calculation – including piston-powered airplanes, turboprops, business jets, helicopters, balloons, dirigibles and gliders. The result of this overly broad categorization of aircraft is that it misrepresents the accident performance of specific components within those broad categories."

Aviation safety expert Bob Breiling, whose numbers NBAA relies upon, calculates from NTSB data accident statistics using a more precise approach that allows for “apples-to-apples” comparisons. Breiling defines corporate aircraft as any airplane flown by a professional crew. For these types of operations, the fatal accident rate is 0.014 per 100,000 hours – which is nearly identical to that of the scheduled air carriers (0.012 per 100,000 hours). Similarly, for turbine-powered charter aircraft the fatal accident rate is about one tenth of what was reported by ABC News.

Moreover, when compared with other forms of travel, charter is an exceptionally safe option.

To place the safety performance of the business aviation community in full context, it is important to understand that, historically, corporate/executive and business aircraft operators have compiled the best safety statistics of any segment of general aviation.

• Most of these operators have taken numerous steps to enhance safety, and many fly with two pilots.
• Regular recurrent training is provided for pilots and maintenance technicians.
• Some corporate/executive operators fly to FAR Part 121 standards (the rules that cover the major air carriers).
• The majority, however, operate in accordance with FAR Part 91. Through such safety initiatives, corporate/executive aircraft, flown by two-person professional pilots or crews, have compiled in recent years a safety record that is comparable to that of FAR Part 121 airlines.

In addition, on average since the mid-1980s, the accident rate among corporate/executive operators has been superior to that of commuter air carriers and air taxis operating under FAR Part 135.

• The year 2003 shows one of the best corporate/executive (professionally flown) accident records ever – 0.028 accidents and 0.014 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours.
• Business aviation (nonprofessionally flown) compiled in 2003 its best record ever – 0.95 accidents per 100,000 flight hours.
• In 2003, all airplanes and helicopters professionally flown for corporate/executive use under FAR Part 91 were involved in two accidents, including one fatal accident resulting in two fatalities, according to the NTSB and Robert E. Breiling Associates, Inc. Both accidents involved single professionally piloted turboprop aircraft. No accidents involved two professionally piloted corporate/executive-operated jets or turboprops.

FMI: www.nbaa.org