Private small Airplanes

A further private aircraft went down on 4 November in Alva, Oklahoma, and killed both onboard. A private airliner from Los Angeles to Aspen, Colorado, went down in March, causing the deaths of 18 individuals. "My goal is to convey the news that while the U.S. air transport sector has increased its casualty rates by nearly 80 per cent in the last 10, 12 years, the general air transport sector is stagnating," said Earl Weener, a flight security specialist and member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Private aircraft can be even more hazardous than the most common cause of death in traffic in America, according to how traffic figures are broken down: automobiles. The NTSB and the Federal Administration of Aeronautics (FAA) maintain general air traffic accident data on a nationwide basis. Ever since the seventies, these figures show improvement in security, with a 75 per cent reduction in overall fatalities from general aviation crashes, said Steve Hedges, a spokesperson for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), a general aviation group.

According to a 2010 NTSB survey, the mortality ratio is just over one per 100,000 hour. While the number of company and company aircraft crashes and deaths is declining, the number of private flight crashes has risen by 20 per cent over the last ten years, and the mortality rates on private flight have risen by 25 per cent.

In 2013 there were 1,297 General Aviation casualties, up from 1,539 in 2012. The number of casualties in general aviation in 2013, at 387, was also the smallest in a decade, the agency said. This results in an overall death toll of 1.05 per 100,000 flight hour. More than 30,000 persons are killed in road crashes every year, in comparison with around 400 killed in general aviation crashes.

TTSB assesses incidents per 100,000 flying hrs, while car incidents are usually assessed per mile driven. According to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), 32,719 road accident fatalities occurred in 2013. There was a death toll of 1.1 fatalities per 100 million car mile driven. Given an avarage car velocity of 50 mph ( a big assumption), the death toll for cars is 1.1 per 2 million mph.

Conversely, one might choose to take mileage based measurements of crashes rather than measuring them against car clock. According to AOPA, the eruption of traffic per kilometre means that the private air transport sector suffers an average traffic casualty ratio of one-sixth that of cars. It is not known how many leagues and how many hour private airplanes actually travel.

FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) polls, which according to NTSB only a small percentage of private flyers complete. A number of analysts, among them Robert Goyer, Flying Magazine's flyer and publisher, say the Fed figures are a good one. Had these observer been right, the hourly casualty rates would be higher than those announced.

According to NDSB figures, the vast majority of General Aviation crashes are due to a piloting fault. It is now concentrating on making private flights more secure by tackling one of the largest crash categories: the loosing of aircraft override. An example could be a pilots who lose the motor of a mono-engined aircraft at take-off and decide to return to the airfield to make a landing only to block instead.

A different scenario could be when a flyer makes the turn to get too close to the touchdown, brake at a low elevation and put the aircraft in a non-recoverable spinning position. Privately owned drivers have to undergo education and performance tests every two years, but these demands are minimum, Weener said.

Weener added that the increased educational demands for company jets could help clarify why commercial air travel is more secure than private air travel. Technology advancements could also help make face-to-face air travel more secure, Goyer said. A new aircraft on the scene has security characteristics pilot could only have dreamed of a few years ago. "Computer aided display on many of the small aircraft that fly around today with enhanced dependability and enhanced redundancy, and new security devices tell you when you're too near the ground or if there's other transport nearby," he said.

NTSB is now using the methodologies to reduce the number of casualties at airlines to almost zero and to use these tools for general purpose air travel, Weener said. The FAA has drawn the attention of private pilot circles to drug use by making them aware of the dangers of using non-prescription or prescription-only medication. Weener and his team encourage drivers to concentrate on their capabilities and manageability.

It is a embassy that seems to work in General aviation. "Saying that we are learning from accident is a huge understatement," Goyer said. "So much we are learning from accident investigations that they form an absolute crucial part of the general aviation security image. "Organisations such as the IMC Club strive to make the pilot more confident by organising events locally devoted to learning to fly instruments.

There will be a "multi-faceted approach" to further reduce the rates of accidents and deaths among private air travel enthusiasts," Goyer said. "It' s about making sure that the pilot understands the risk and then flies the plane in a way that avoids it.