Air Safety & the FAA

Although the U.S. aviation system is one of the safest in the world, hundreds of fatalities occur each year in general aviation, which includes all forms of aviation except commercial and military. The general aviation industry is composed of a diverse fleet of over 220,000 aircraft that conduct a wide variety of operations, from personal pleasure flights in small, piston aircraft to world-wide professionally piloted corporate flights in turbine-powered aircraft. According to the 2011 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) data, 92 percent of that year''s fatal accidents occurred in general aviation. The majority of general aviation accidents are attributed to pilot error. This book examines the characteristics and trends of aviation accidents from 1999 through 2011 and recent actions taken by the FAA to improve general aviation safety.