The Air Charter Safety Foundation’s (ACSF) recently completed review of Part 135 incidents and accidents examines the safety record of the industry from 2004 to 2008. To compile the data, the foundation combed through the NTSB accident database and separated revenue flights from Part 91 events, including maintenance, ferry, positioning and instruction.
Because there is no data on the relative flight hours, the study refrains from drawing specific conclusions. Rather, it serves mainly as a statistical breakdown of accidents by aircraft type, phase of flight, flight purpose and weather conditions.
“Our study provides insight in the areas of our industry that deserve deeper evaluation to identify where higher risks actually lie,” said Jacqueline Rosser, ACSF’s executive director. “Without better data on how many hours are flown by aircraft type and mission, both government and industry are unable to make informed choices regarding interventions.” As an example, the study’s authors cited the statistic that during the five-year period under review there were 128 passenger-flight accidents and 112 cargo-flight accidents. However, with the absence of an accurate recording of flight hours per mission–data not collected by either the NTSB or the FAA–it is not possible to determine the ratio of flight hours per accident according to mission category. Citing the crucial need for identifying trends in industry mishaps, the study also called for more consistent language between the NTSB and the FAA in their accident reporting, as well as stronger emphasis by the two agencies on identifying operating categories.
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