In the latest information from the FAA, officials looked at the top causes of fatal accidents in general aviation from 2001 to 2015.
Not surprisingly, loss of control in flight tops the list.
Loss of control can happen because an aircraft enters a speed outside of its normal flight envelope, which can quickly create a stall or spin danger.
According to FAA officials, there is one fatal accident involving loss of control every 5.5 days.
However, from 2008 to 2017, fatal accidents from controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) — another leading cause of general aviation accidents — were reduced by about half.
One reason for that is work by the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee, as well as the Fly Safe outreach campaign to prevent dangerous loss of control (LOC) situations.
It seems to be working. For the first time in years, preventing loss of control accidents was not included on the 2019 Most Wanted List by the NTSB.
What other causes of accidents are on the list?
- Loss of control in flight
- Controlled flight into terrain
- System component failure — engine
- Fuel
- Unknown
- System component failure — non-engine
- Unintended flight into instrument meteorological conditions
- Mid-air collisions
- Low altitude operations
- Other
One thing that is definitely missing here is the percentage of accidents in each category. For instance, if the #3 cause, engine failure, is 30% of the accidents, then that category definitely needs close and immediate attention. If the #3 cause, engine failure, is only 3 or 4 percent of the total, the previous two need most of the attention because THEY are by far the biggest problems. Unfortunately, the resources to address ALL of the problems simultaneously don’t seem to be available. We need to triage them and work on the biggest ones (by percentage) first, then work our way down.
We also need to be more specific as to what the circumstances were for LOC accidents. “Bee flew into cockpit, pilot lost control flailing at it” won’t take a huge amount of attention, whereas “Pilot buzzed a house and struck trees” means we can hopefully educate people out of that kind of stupidity before Darwin does it for us.
“Pilot buzzed a house . . .” LOC or a CFIT? Your points are well taken, though I also think some accidents get mis-categorized too, eschewing the numbers. Just a thought.
Is there a place in the list for Practicing an Emergency that unfortunately turns into a Real Emergency?
That could be #1,2,3, or 9…. all pilot error.
Getting the student confortable with the stall margine and rcconizeing when to recover in all situations
Distressing amount of “unknown.”
gbigs, I agree with you on all those.
The article mentions that LOC is caused by ‘speed outside the normal envelope’…NO ! LOC is caused by stalling a wing, which can be done at any airspeed.
This is why there has been a huge development in angle of attack sensor/ indicators.
Maybe we need instructors to be required to do some remedial training on those 6 items during a BFR ?
exactly !!!!!!…..all that is needed is an indicator where the needle is pointed in a colored zone based on the AOA….pilots would be much more aware of their proximity to a stall when equipped with this…
Hi Janice
FASTA USA proposed to the NTSB, FAA, AOPA, EAA… that all pilots including student pilots must review the accident-incident-mechanical [ AIM] history – failures the first time they fly a different type/model aircraft.
Not to do this invite repetition…
Example – I tell my students – after they obtain their certificate –
” I hope you never have an accidents! but if you do..do me a big favor – make it an original one! ”
There-in-lies the AIM message
1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 are all pilot controlled and avoidable with responsible behavior.