No Fatalities, but Increase in Adverse Aviation Safety Incidents in 2011

Aviation safety groups as well as California plane crash lawyers have been impressed with the no-fatality record of 2011.   That however, is the good news.  The bad news is that there was actually an increase in the number of aviation safety incidents that occurred last year.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there were no fatal commercial airline crashes involving any of the major carriers last year.  That is the 2^nd year in a row that there have been no crashes involving major carriers.

However, that doesn't mean that passengers are safer now.  The number of overall aviation safety incidents actually increased in 2011.  In 2010, there had been 1,500 civil aviation safety incidents.  That number increased to 1,550 in 2011.  That is a slight increase, but it is something that California plane crash attorneys would stress more attention on.

Even though there were no major commercial airline crashes last year, the number of fatalities actually increased from 2010.  In 2010, 450 people have been killed in plane crashes.  That number increased to 485 in 2011.  All of these fatalities occurred in crashes that involved on-demand and general aviation operations.  These operations include medical plane services, charter flights, and air taxi services.

On-demand aviation operations suffered a substantial increase in crashes in 2011.  Plane crashes involving charter flights increased from 31 in 2010 to 50 in 2011.  The number of fatalities increased dramatically from 17 in 2010 to 41 in 2011.

Plane crashes involving general aviation operations also increased from 1,439 in 2010 to 1466 in 2011.  The number of fatalities in general aviation accidents however dropped from 454 in 2010 to 444 in 2011.

The Federal Aviation Administration found itself investigating more private plane and charter plane crashes in 2011, and the agency must reflect on the reasons for this.