The number of fatal accidents involving turbine-powered business airplanes worldwide in the first nine months of this year held steady with the tally for the same period last year, although the number of people killed in U.S.-registered business jets dropped in the most recent nine months, according to preliminary figures compiled by AIN. For N-numbered business jets, 13 people were killed in four crashes in the first nine months of this year compared with 17 killed, also in four accidents, during the same period last year. All these accidents befell Part 91 operations. The four fatal U.S. jet crashes from January through September this year involved two Raytheon Premiers (two and five fatalities, respectively), a U.S.-registered Learjet 60 in Venezuela (two killed) and a CitationJet in which four perished. All these accidents were still in the NTSB preliminary investigation stages at press time.
