The Nall Report, AOPA’s annual review of aviation accidents for 2005 was released last week.  The in depth summary showed an increase in accidents and also an increase in fatal accidents.  A summary of accidents is as follows:

• Single-Engine Fixed-Gear Aircraft - 796 total/ 152 fatal
• Single-Engine Retractable-Gear Aircraft - 195 total/ 59 fatal
• Multiengine Aircraft - 85 total/ 31 fatal
• Business Flying - 30 total/ 7 fatal
• Instructional Flying - 165 total/ 16 fatal
• Mechanical/Maintenance Accidents - 232 total/ 22 fatal
• Homebuilt Aircraft - 126 total/ 47 fatal
• Fuel Management - 113 total/ 20 fatal
• Midair Collisions - 10 total/ 5 fatal
• Alcohol and Drugs - 5 total/ 5 fatal
• Pilot Incapacitation - 3 total/ 3 fatal
• Propeller Strike Injuries - 1 total/ 1 fatal

The number of flight hours in a particular type of aircraft also has an impact on safety. The more time in type a pilot has, the less likely he or she is to have an accident in that type. For both fatal and nonfatal categories in 2005, about 43 percent of accidents involved pilots with fewer than 100 hours experience in type. Total accident rates fall sharply after the first 100 hours of time in type.

Personal flying represents half (49.4 percent) of all GA flying, but accounts for 81.2 percent of fatal and 70.7 percent of all GA accidents.

Summary

The accident rates per 100,000 hours for general aviation aircraft were 7.20 total and 1.39 fatal. A slight increase was noted in pilot rated accidents and fatal pilot rated accidents. Maneuvering flight was the category with the largest number of pilot-related fatal accidents (80). This category accounted for one out of three fatal crashes (33.1 percent) in 2005. Maneuvering flight was also the number one fatal accident category for single-engine fixed gear aircraft, responsible for over one-third (39.5 percent) of all single engle fixed gear fatal accidents.

Weather accident statistics improved in 2005 over the previous year.  The majority of fatal weather accidents in single-engine aircraft resulted from VFR flight into IMC. Most of the accidents occurred during the day in VMC conditions.

 
The complete text of the Nall Report also is available free online.