In 2008, the FAA
issued new rules affecting pilots who fly the remaining fleet of more than 350 Mitsubishi MU-2 twin turboprops. Following a spate of MU-2 accidents and yet another review of some aspects of the MU-2’s certification in 2005, the FAA enacted a special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR 108) that makes pilot training mandatory for new MU-2 pilots, those who used to fly MU-2s but hadn’t recently (requalification) and for those who want to continue flying MU-2s (recurrent).
The MU-2 SFAR is the first such requirement the FAA has created for a turboprop-powered airplane and joins an SFAR that applies to Robinson R22s and R44s. The SFAR process is used rarely, but in the case of the MU-2 and the Robinson the rule has had an enormous beneficial effect on safety. Since the MU-2 SFAR was issued in 2008, and even well before it took effect early last year, there has been only one accident (a crash in Ohio on January 18 that killed four people; see News Briefs on page 14) and one nonfatal MU-2 accident. In the 30 months before the 2005 safety evaluation, there were 14 accidents (10 fatal). There were three fatal accidents in 2006.
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