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General aviation reaches lowest fatal accident rate on record

General aviation reaches lowest fatal accident rate on record

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FAA's 2025 fact sheet shows fiscal 2024 hit 0.68 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, the lowest since current tracking began

May 1st, 2025: FAA reports lowest fatal rate since 2009

Overview

In 1994, small planes in the United States killed people at a rate of 1.73 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours. Three decades later, the rate has fallen by more than half.

The FAA's 2025 General Aviation Safety Fact Sheet, published May 1, recorded 0.68 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours in fiscal 2024. That is the lowest rate since the agency adopted its current tracking method in 2009, and the product of a 30-year mix of cockpit technology, training programs, and a joint industry-government safety committee.

Why it matters

Roughly 200,000 active general aviation pilots and the people who fly with them face about half the per-hour fatal accident risk of a generation ago.

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Key Indicators

0.68
Fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours
Fiscal 2024 rate, lowest since the FAA's current tracking method began in 2009.
195
Fatal accidents in FY 2024
Down from 209 in FY 2023, per FAA preliminary figures.
337
Fatalities in FY 2024
Total deaths in general aviation accidents during the fiscal year.
60%
Drop in fatal accident rate since 1994
Fatal rate fell from 1.73 to 0.68 per 100,000 hours across three decades.
~70%
Share of accidents attributed to pilots
Loss of control in flight remains the single largest cause, per AOPA's McSpadden Report.

Voices

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Timeline Five events from this story — drag them oldest to newest. Log in to play
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People Involved

Richard McSpadden
Richard McSpadden
Killed in a Cessna 177RG accident on October 1, 2023
 Randy Babbitt
Randy Babbitt
Out of office; safety architecture he helped relaunch is still operating

Organizations Involved

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Federal agency
Publishes the annual GA Safety Fact Sheet and certifies safety equipment

The FAA regulates U.S. civil aviation, including pilot certification, aircraft airworthiness, and safety data collection.
General Aviation Joint Safety Committee
General Aviation Joint Safety Committee
Industry-government safety body
Active; coordinates data-driven safety interventions

A joint FAA-industry group that analyzes general aviation accident data and proposes interventions.
AOPA Air Safety Institute
AOPA Air Safety Institute
Nonprofit safety education arm
Publishes the annual McSpadden Report on GA accidents

The education and research arm of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, focused on pilot training and accident analysis.

Timeline

January 1994 May 2025

11 events Latest: May 1st, 2025 · 1 year ago Showing 8 of 11
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  1. FAA reports lowest fatal rate since 2009

    Latest Statistical milestone

    The 2025 GA Safety Fact Sheet records 195 fatal accidents and 337 fatalities at a rate of 0.68 per 100,000 flight hours for fiscal 2024.

  2. AOPA: GA safer than ever

    Analysis

    The association argues that recent high-profile crashes mask a long-term decline in fatal accident rates.

  3. FAA recommends AOA for all Part 23 aircraft

    Regulatory

    Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin 2024-07 urges all Part 23 owners to install and calibrate angle-of-attack systems.

  4. First McSpadden Report published

    Publication

    AOPA renames its annual GA accident review for its late safety chief and releases the 34th edition.

  5. Richard McSpadden killed in crash

    Incident

    The head of AOPA's Air Safety Institute dies in a Cessna 177RG accident at Lake Placid, New York.

  6. ADS-B mandate takes effect

    Regulatory

    Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out becomes required in most controlled U.S. airspace, sharpening pilot traffic awareness.

  7. FAA eases AOA indicator approval

    Regulatory

    The agency simplifies non-required installation of angle-of-attack indicators on existing aircraft.

  8. FAA sets 10-year safety target

    Policy

    Administrator Randy Babbitt announces a goal of cutting the GA fatal accident rate 10% within ten years.

  9. FAA adopts current tracking method

    Methodology

    The agency begins computing the GA fatal rate using improved flight-hours data from its activity survey.

  10. GAJSC formed

    Institutional

    FAA and industry launch the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee under the Safer Skies Initiative.

  11. Fatal accident rate peaks

    Baseline

    U.S. general aviation records 1.73 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, the modern high-water mark.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1998 to 2008

Commercial Aviation Safety Team (1998-2008)

After a string of fatal U.S. airline crashes including TWA 800 and ValuJet 592, the FAA and major carriers formed CAST in 1998 to share data and target specific failure modes. The team identified controlled flight into terrain, approach-and-landing accidents, and loss of control as priorities.

Then

By 2008, CAST claimed an 83% reduction in the U.S. commercial fatal accident risk versus its starting baseline.

Now

U.S. Part 121 scheduled airlines went more than 12 years without a passenger fatality after February 2009, an outcome industry attributes in part to CAST's interventions.

Why this matters now

GAJSC was modeled directly on CAST. The current GA fatal-rate decline tests whether the same collaborative formula scales down to single-pilot operations.

1972 to 2014

U.S. auto fatality decline (1972-2014)

U.S. traffic deaths peaked at 54,589 in 1972. Federal standards on seatbelts, airbags, and crashworthiness, state seatbelt laws, drunk-driving crackdowns, and better road engineering combined over four decades.

Then

The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled fell from 4.30 in 1972 to about 1.08 by 2014.

Now

Absolute deaths roughly halved even as vehicle miles traveled more than doubled.

Why this matters now

A second comparable case where a measurable safety statistic fell by half or more through layered regulation, mandated equipment, and training, without a single dramatic cause.

Sources

(7)
+1
Human Progress Federal Aviation Administration AOPA General Aviation News National Transportation Safety Board GAJSC AOPA