• roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    It’s absolutely true. General aviation aircraft crash all the time, more than once a day.

    For some reason I couldn’t find an FAA Administrator’s Fact Book for anything more recent than 2012 (statistics for 2011 on most things, 2010 for some).

    In 2011 there were 1450 general aviation accidents, about four a day.

    In 2010 there were 450 general aviation fatalities.

    Source

    Edit: Here are some NTSB numbers for 2022. General aviation had 1205 accidents and 214 were fatal with a total of 339 fatalities.

    • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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      5 months ago

      you changed my opinion, thanks. :)

      i had seen this resource in my search too but i guess in my head accident =/= crash (obviously all crashes are accidents but only some accidents are crashes)? but i guess i was wrong in that assumption maybe

      • roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 months ago

        Depends on your definition of crash. If you mean it starts in the air, some occurred on the ground. If you click through to the GA tab on the NTSB stats it breaks them down and you can see standing and taxi accidents. Unfortunately it’s a total from 2008-2022, but for those 15 years 457 were in taxi and 276 were standing so on average about 50 a year.

        Edit: For the NTSB accident vs. incident is defined by substantial damage, death, or serious injury. I’m not sure exactly what counts as substantial, but I think it meets a generic definition of crash.

        • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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          5 months ago

          ooh i didn’t see that tab. and yep most of the accidents had something to do with being in the air and so even by my non-expert definition i am wrong. big sad that this was one of my most upvoted comments and it was factually incorrect 😭

          • roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            It’s understandable. When I got into the aviation industry I was very surprised to learn how many GA accidents and fatalities occurred in a year. Unless it’s Kobe, or newsworthy for some other reason, it usually doesn’t get past the local news.

            • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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              5 months ago

              i think also the data is juuuust a bit more inaccessible? like i remember i was able to fact check the derailment stat in a few seconds. anyway. regards! ☕️☀️