The total number of U.S. business aviation accidents in the first nine months of this year remained nearly even with the same period last year, despite an uptick in flight hours, according to statistics released by Boca Raton, Fla.-based industry safety analyst Robert E. Breiling Associates. In the first three quarters of the year, U.S.-registered business jets and turboprops experienced 34 accidents, five of them fatal, compared with 31 accidents–four of them fatal–in the first nine months of last year.
Through the first three quarters of this year, the business jet category suffered six accidents, including one fatal–the January crash of a cargo-hauling Learjet 35A near Chicago that killed the two-person crew. In the same period last year, the sector suffered six nonfatal accidents. The corporate/executive segment saw a 75-percent decline in the number of accidents this year (from four to one), while the number of accidents among Part 135 and private/business operators doubled, from one each in the first three quarters to two each (including the fatal cargo flight) in the first nine months of this year. The fractional business jet segment experienced one nonfatal accident during the first nine months of the year after seeing none in the same span last year. The number of bizjet incidents rose to 41 for the first nine months of this year from 35 in the first three quarters of last year.
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