The Richard G. McSpadden Report
The 34th Richard G. McSpadden Report (formerly the Joseph T. Nall Report) was renamed in honor and memory of our beloved friend and colleague who tragically lost his life in an airplane accident on October 1, 2023, at Lake Placid, New York. His work focused on reaching captive audiences with relevant, timely, and engaging content. Richard's tireless efforts to improve aviation safety helped envision the current iteration of this report, which offers users a near real-time analysis of general aviation accidents. The data are updated on a rolling 30-day cycle, with access to analysis going back as far as 2008 and data trends projected well into 2024.
This year’s report underwent a modernization effort to align with industry standards. These changes largely affect non-commercial fixed-wing. Accidents are broken into distinct phases of flight with NTSB standard accident causes listed under each phase. Individual cause categories—mechanical, fuel, and weather—were created for those specific accident causes critical to ongoing safety efforts.
The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s executive summaries for a given period provide insight and comparisons of selected dates versus previous years. The executive summaries note a decrease in overall accident rates. An increase in total and fatal accidents was mitigated by an increase in flight activity following 2021.
Accident rates in non-commercial fixed-wing and non-commercial helicopter decreased, while commercial fixed-wing and commercial helicopter rates increased.
Loss of control events continue to be the leading causal factor, and weather-related accidents remain highly lethal. These accident causes—related to pilot decision-making and proficiency—help inform the industry, including the AOPA Air Safety Institute, where further education and training are needed to improve aviation safety.
FAQs
What is general aviation?
General aviation (GA) is all flight activity of every kind except that done by the uniformed armed services and scheduled airlines. In addition to personal and recreational flying, it includes public-benefit missions such as law enforcement and fire suppression, flight instruction, freight hauling, passenger charters, crop-dusting, and other types of aerial work that range from news reporting to helicopter sling loads.
What’s in the report?
The Richard G. McSpadden Report analyzes GA accidents in U.S. National Airspace and on flights departing from or returning to the U.S. or its territories or possessions. The report covers airplanes with maximum rated gross takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds or less and helicopters of all sizes. Collectively, these types of aircraft account for 99 percent of GA flight activity. Other categories are excluded, including gliders, weight-shift control aircraft, powered parachutes, gyrocopters, UAS, and lighter-than-air crafts of all types.
How are accident trends measured?
The total amount of accidents nationwide can vary substantially from year to year. For that reason, the most informative measure is usually not the number of accidents but the accident rate, commonly expressed as the number of accidents per 100,000 flight hours. GA flight time is estimated using the FAA’s annual General Aviation and Part 135 Activity Survey, which breaks down aircraft activity by category and class and purpose of flight, among other characteristics.
