Business Aviation Safety Report Shows Ups and Downs

Mark Phelps

Tuesday, February 05, 2013 at 11:24 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

General aviation safety shows mixed trends: business jet accidents and fatalities increased in 2012, especially in on-demand operations, while turboprop accidents and fatalities decreased significantly.
A positive safety trend was observed for full-time professional business jet crews, marking the fourth consecutive year with no fatal accidents.
Over the last five years, the landing phase has consistently accounted for more than 40% of all general aviation accidents, rising to over 50% for professionally flown jets.

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There’s good news and bad news about general aviation safety. An analysis by Robert E. Breiling & Associates notes that last year there were a total of 19 business jet accidents, including five fatal accidents that killed a total of 21. This represents an increase of five accidents compared with the 14 in 2011, when no one died in a business jet crash. Last year, nine of the 19 accidents — and three of the five fatal accidents — involved on-demand operations.

Company founder Bob Breiling reports that last year was the fourth in a row in which there were no fatal accidents in which the crew was employed full-time.