50-percent reduction in accidents
Flight training is getting safer, report finds
A collaboration between the AOPA Air Safety Institute and Liberty University School of Aeronautics, the report explores flight training risks and innovations within the past two decades. The study covers fatal training accidents in the United States, offers a breakdown of accidents and their causes, and concludes with accident prevention and mitigation recommendations.
Loss of control comprises the largest accident category, accounting for 54 percent of all fatal instructional accidents with the vast majority being stall/spin related.
“The aviation industry has done an excellent job of stall/spin awareness when overshooting base to final,” said Robert Geske, AOPA Air Safety Institute manager of aviation safety analysis. “Similarly, we should stress stall/spin risk during takeoff, climbout, and go-around, and emphasize energy awareness and management during those flight phases.”
“The good news is that flight training is getting safer. Sustained efforts by the FAA, NTSB, manufacturers, and the flight training community have resulted in a fatal accident rate that is now roughly half of what it was at the start of the century,” said Andrew Walton, Liberty University director of safety. “From 2000 to 2004, the fatal accident rate averaged 0.49 per hundred thousand hours and decreased to 0.26 in the last five years of the study. However, there remains plenty of work to do, particularly in mitigating the risk of loss of control in flight.”
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