The FAA this week sent out a general aviation safety “fact sheet” identifying several technologies the agency says can help significantly curb the fatal accident rate. While the list includes several of the typical technologies we think of as promoting safety such as Nexrad weather receivers, traffic and terrain awareness systems and ballistic parachutes, the agency singled out two devices in particular as having “the greatest likelihood of improving safety.”
Can you guess what they are? We’ll give you a hint: They aren’t included in very many general aviation airplanes today (which is maybe why they topped the FAA’s list). The somewhat surprising safety-enhancing technologies the FAA named are: seatbelt airbags and angle of attack indicators.
