Private airplanes account for most crashes and casualties in the United States, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Private, or general aviation, flights are 82 times riskier than commercial airline trips and represent the overwhelming majority of aviation crashes and casualties in the United States, they reported in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
General aviation includes emergency medical services, sightseeing, flight training, traffic reporting, aerial surveys, search and rescue, crop dusting and fire fighting, as well as recreational and business use. General aviation aircraft range from small private airplanes and business jets to helicopters, hot-air balloons and gliders.
“Commercial airlines are the safest mode of transportation, but general aviation is a serious safety concern. Fatal crash risk per person-mile of travel for general aviation flights is comparable to riding motorcycles,” lead author Dr. Guohua said in a statement.
