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Barry,
I checked
the FAA/NTSB site, and I was wrong.
In
terms of fatalities per aircraft hour flown, averaged over 1986 to 2005,
GenAv flew about 38,000 hours between fatalities. Air carriers flew
118,000 hours between fatalities. rOUGHLY, 40K VS. 120K. Three times
the fatality rate -- but not ten times, as you said.
GenAv had
13,846 fatalities while flying about 518 million hours; and the air carriers had
2,317 fatalities included (... the reports excluded some) while flying 273
million hours.
Some time
I'll dig out my old report, numbers which came from Aviation Week and the
Almanac, e tc. This was before computers.
Not so bad
for GenAv, considering their current sorry aerodynamic-safety state, as compared
to the state-of-the-art airliners, in my opinion. I can live with flying
38,000 hours between fatalities. That gives me about 35,000 more to go, and I'm
already 76. : )
Can we now
get back to some suggestions about how to make the GenAv airplanes safer for
everyone, not just the superman pilots?
I think Cirrus is doing
good. Being able to get rid of the gas would be a big
improvement in the fatalities rate. And I'm working on the Lancair's pitch
control and high AOA issues. Anybody got some other
ideas?
And --
where'd you find the data on highway fatalities?
Terrence O'Neill
N211AL
L235/320
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 11:43
AM
Subject: [LML] Re: response to Terrence
O'Neill's posting...
On Jul 23, 2006, at 2:43 PM, terrence o'neill wrote:
The intent was to say that the airlines are not much safer than GenAv
in spite of the fact that they have all these extra
benefits:
Unfortunately, while I wish this was true, statistics do not bear it
out. General aviation experiences about 10 times the fatalities per year
compared to air carriers. This does not factor in that GA
(surprisingly, on the face of it) flies about twice as many total hours as air
carriers (approx. 30 million v. about 15 million) with more take offs and
landings where 50% of all accidents happen. Regardless, dead is
dead.
Anecdotally, think of how many people you know or have heard of dying in
GA accidents and compare that to how many people you know have died in
airliners. I personally (thankfully) do not know of a single person
killed in an airline crash.
Don't tell your wives this, but statistically speaking, GA is
significantly more dangerous than driving...
Fly safely!
Barry
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