No Fatalities Among U.S. Scheduled Flights in Three of Four Years, Air France Search Turns Up FDR
U.S.
Search teams found the FDR memory unit from the Air France A330 that crashed into the South Atlantic in June 2009. (Photo: BEA)
Search teams found the FDR memory unit from the Air France A330 that crashed into the South Atlantic in June 2009. (Photo: BEA)

U.S. scheduled airlines have gone three years out of four without suffering a fatal accident, the last coming in February 2009, when the crash of a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 outside Buffalo killed 50. Preliminary statistics released by the NTSB on April 20 show that scheduled Part 121 airlines recorded 26 accidents last year all told. Part 135 commuters experienced six accidents in 2010, none of which proved fatal.

Of the three non-scheduled Part 121 accidents last year, one–the September crash of a UPS Boeing 747-400 shortly after takeoff from Dubai International Airport–involved fatalities. Both pilots died in that crash.