National Transportation Safety Board: Fatalities rose in 2008 for air taxi, tour flights

April 2, 2009 at 4:57 pm

(Source: Associated Press via Yahoo! Finance)

 

Safety board says fatal accidents were up sharply in 2008 for air taxi, medical, tour flights

WASHINGTON (AP) — There was a spike last year in deaths from crashes of air medical, air taxi and tour flights, federal safety officials said Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said there were 56 so-called on-demand flight accidents in which 66 people were killed in 2008. That’s the highest number of fatalities for such flights in eight years and an increase of 13 deaths over 2007. The on-demand accident rate was 1.52 accidents per 100,000 flight hours, virtually unchanged from the previous year.

The board held a public hearing earlier this year examining the safety practices of the air medical helicopter industry. Fifteen people were killed in four medical helicopter crashes in 2008.

Major U.S. airlines, however, suffered no accident fatalities in 2008 for the second consecutive year despite carrying 753 million passengers on more than 10.8 million flights, the NTSB said. Major airlines experienced 28 accidents last year, the same as 2007.

 Commuter airlines, which typically fly smaller turboprop planes, also didn’t have any accident fatalities despite making 581,000 flights last year, the board said. However, there were seven commuter airline accidents in 2008, up three from the previous year.

There were 495 people killed — one fewer than the previous year — in general aviation accidents in 2008, the board said. General aviation includes private and corporate planes.

Acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said the aviation safety record for 2008 was mixed.  Click here to access today’s press release and interesting statistical tables.

Table 1. Accidents, Fatalities, and Rates, 2008 Preliminary Statistics
U.S. Aviation
  Accidents Fatalities Flight Hours Departures Accidents per 100,000 Flight Hours Accidentsper 100,000 Departures
All Fatal Total Aboard All Fatal All Fatal
U.S. air carriers operating under 14 CFR 121
– Scheduled 20 0 0 0 18,730,000 10,597,000 0.107 0.189
– Nonscheduled 8 2 3 1 621,000 190,000 1.288 0.322 4.211 1.053
U.S. air carriers operating under 14 CFR 135
– Commuter 7 0 0 0 290,400 581,000 2.410 1.205
– On-Demand 56 19 66 66 3,673,000 1.52 0.52
U.S. general aviation 1,559 275 495 486 21,931,000 7.11 1.25
U.S. civil aviation 1,649 296 564 553
Other accidents in the U.S.
– Foreign registered aircraft 6 4 7 7
– Unregistered aircraft 7 1 1 1