It's The Same Types of Accidents -- Don't We Ever Learn?

Although the NTSB didn't comment on the causes of the aircraft accidents in 2002, they did issue this quick summary of what happened. It is interesting to note that, of the total aviation fatalities in 2002, none occured on commercial, scheduled carriers. Only 42 aviation deaths occured in non-GA accidents. We don't know if that is reflective of the relative proportions of flights, or whether it actually makes GA "look good."

Here's the NTSB's notation, filed as Fiscal Year 2003 came to a close this week:

The number of persons killed in all aviation accidents dropped from 1,171 in 2001 to 618 in 2002. It should be noted that airline fatalities in 2001 accounted for a total of 531 deaths. The 2001 deaths included the September 11 terrorist attacks and the American Airlines flight 587 crash in November. There were no fatalities on scheduled passenger carriers in 2002. The number of general aviation fatalities increased slightly from 562 in 2001 to 576 in 2002.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov