Accidents
Business aviation safety off to a poor start in 2010
The recent increase in business aviation flight hours has resulted in an increase in the number of accidents, especially among the turboprop segment, accor

The recent increase in business aviation flight hours has resulted in an increase in the number of accidents, especially among the turboprop segment, according to statistics compiled by Boca Raton, Fla.-based industry safety analyst Robert E. Breiling Associates.

This year’s first quarter saw nearly double the number of accidents among U.S-registered turboprops as the same period last year. From January through March there were 15 turboprop accidents–three of them fatal, with a total of seven fatalities–compared with eight crashes in the first three months last year. While that period in 2009 also experienced three fatal accidents that killed 19 people, the total number of fatalities was skewed by the March 22, 2009 crash of a Pilatus PC-12 in Montana, which was responsible for 14 of the fatalities during that quarter.