The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its statistics on aircraft accidents in 2020, and the findings are quite interesting. It shows that the number of fatalities in general aviation decreased significantly. There were 332 deaths in 2020 compared to 414 the year before. The accident rate also dipped, with it now at 1.049 mishaps per 100,000 hours compared to 1.069 in 2019.
The report also reveals that there were no fatalities in U.S. Part 121 (scheduled air carriers) in 2020, which is a common occurrence. However, there were 21 deaths in Part 135 on-demand charter operations in 2020, which is a decrease from 32 in 2019.
Perhaps the most anticipated figures are those related to the hours flown during 2020, a year when the pandemic emerged as a global crisis. It’s not surprising that air carrier operations saw a significant drop (more than 55 percent), and charter operators also suffered heavy losses, with Part 135 activity down by around 45 percent.
General aviation fared relatively better in terms of flight activity, according to the NTSB’s report. There were 11% fewer hours flown in 2020 compared to 2021, which was predicted based on a survey early in the pandemic that showed pilots of light and business aircraft were not overly affected by the pandemic’s implications.
The umbrella organization of Sun ‘n Fun, the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE), announced that its president/CEO John “Lites” Leenhouts will retire after next year’s Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In, which takes place from April 5 to 10, 2022. Leenhouts, a former Naval aviator, has been in charge of Sun ‘n since 2011. Under his leadership, ACE has greatly expanded its community educational offerings and built up the organization’s infrastructure on the Lakeland Linder campus.
Deliveries of piston-powered aircraft were flat for the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2019. GA makers of piston planes only handed over 6 fewer planes than in the first three quarters of the previous year.
In a surprising development this week, Joby Aviation announced that it will certify its battery-powered multiengine tilt rotor aircraft as a pilot-flown airplane. The company’s founder, JoeBen Bevirt, said that by following the typical Part 23 path, the certification process will be greatly simplified and sped up. Joby claims to have recently completed a 150-mile-plus flight at a ground speed of around 120 mph.
EAA announced the second edition of its highly successful Homebuilders Week, a series of online webinars covering every aspect of aircraft homebuilding. This event will take place from January 24 to 28, 2022, and will feature six daily live presentations. The inaugural event last year attracted over 16,000 participants.
The pilot of a firefighting modified Air Tractor 802A that crashed in Colorado earlier this month during a rare nighttime mission has been identified. The pilot, Marc Thor Olsen, according to the operator CO Fire Aviation, is a decorated veteran of both the Army and the Air Force. The NTSB is investigating the accident.
The lucky pilot of a Mooney that lost power while approaching Tampa’s Peter O. Knight Airport and his passenger were rescued after ditching in Tampa Bay. Assisting in the rescue were the chief pilot of Icon Aircraft Genesah Duffy, who was conducting a post-maintenance flight in an Icon A5, along with a Tampa Police boat. Both occupants of the Mooney got wet but were unharmed in the ditching and subsequent swim.
In a week that saw several ditching incidents along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the story of a Bonanza pilot whose single-engine plane lost power near Cedar Key made headlines. A photo showing the Bonanza pilot standing on top of his plane as a Customs and Border Protection boat came to offer assistance was widely seen in the news. The pilot also remained uninjured in this incident.
Leonardo showcased its AW609 civil tiltrotor at the Dubai Airshow, which is steadily progressing towards certification and eventual production. This aircraft, which emerged as a proposed high-speed, vertical flight solution for business aviation, has been in development since the late 1990s as a joint venture between Bell Helicopter and Boeing. It made its first flight in 2003 and is now owned by Leonardo Air, an Italian multinational corporation.
