Your chances of being involved in an aircraft accident are about 1 in 11 million. On the other hand, your chances of being killed in an automobile accident are 1 in 5000. Statistically, you are at far greater risk driving to the airport than getting on an airplane. However, the perception is that you have more control over your fate when you are in your car than as a passenger traveling on an airplane. Experience shows otherwise, considering that over 50,000 people are killed on the highways every year.

Is GA (General Aviation) Flying Safer Than Driving?

The airline industry likes to point out that, despite some passengers’

WTC

apprehension, flying in an airliner is actually safer than driving a car. Some pilots of small planes ‘recall’ this argument, and mistakenly apply it to General Aviation (i.e. flying that isn’t the scheduled airlines or military, typically “little planes” and “biz jets”).

Is it true? Is our “little plane” flying safer than driving a car?

Raw stats

For GA accident stats, we’ll use the 2005 Nall Report (available at http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/nall.html), which reports on accidents from calendar year 2004.

For driving, we’ll use 2004 statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), available here.

According to the Nall report, in 2004:

there were 1413 GA fixed-wing accidents

of these accidents, 290 involved fatalities

these fatal accidents accounted for 510 fatalities

the FAA estimates 25.9M GA flight hours

According to the NHTSA, in 2004:

there were 6.1M accidents

1.9M involved injuries

38253 involved fatalities

there were 42636 fatalities in motor vehicle accidents, breaking down to:

33134 “occupants” (car/truck drivers and passengers)

4008 “motorcycle riders”

5494 “non-occupants” (e.g. pedestrians)

an estimated 2.9T vehicle miles traveled

an estimated 10.0B motorcycle vehicle miles traveled.

So in 2004, 510 people died in 290 GA accidents, while 42636 died in 6.1M motor vehicle accidents. Of course, to determine risk level, we have to convert this into a rate, as there was a whole lot more driving done in 2004 than there was GA plane flying. Read the rest of this entry »

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