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List of accidents and incidents involving general aviation

This list of accidents and incidents involving general aviation is grouped by the years in which the accidents or incidents occurred. "General aviation" here includes private as well as corporate aircraft operating under general aviation rules, i.e. not flights of airliners, commuter or military aircraft.

Overall, this is an incomplete listing, but is intended to be a complete listing of notable accidents and incidents with Wikipedia articles and those involving notable persons with Wikipedia articles. For more exhaustive lists, see the Crash Record Office or the Aviation Safety Network.

Introduction

General aviation safety in America

The number of deaths per passenger-mile on commercial airlines in the United States between 2000 and 2010 was about 0.2 deaths per 10 billion passenger-miles. For driving, the rate was 150 per 10 billion vehicle-miles for 2000 : 750 times higher per mile than for flying in a commercial airplane.

General aviation safety in Europe

About three accidents per day are reported in Europe. As the reporting of every GA accident and incident is not mandatory everywhere, these figures may be higher. However, most major accidents are likely to be reflected due to involvement of outside authorities. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the national civil aviation authorities support and encourage the collection of light aircraft accident data in order to provide more in-depth statistics and analysis.

In the UK, there were 27 fatal accidents involving GA aircraft in 2007, resulting in the loss of 48 lives. This compares with 16 accidents claiming a total of 19 lives the previous year, and although the 2007 statistics are higher than average, they are not exceptional.

1912

  • May 13 – A Flanders Monoplane crashed at Brooklands, England, killing the pilot and his passenger. The accident was investigated by the Royal Aero Club, which issued the first-ever report into an aviation accident and established the science of aviation accident investigation.

1935

1937

1952

1959

1963

1964

1969

1971

1972

1973

  • January 22 – The personal Piaggio P.136L-2 airplane of Alexander Onassis crashed at Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, Greece. A few seconds after takeoff from runway 33, the plane's right wing dropped and stayed down, and the plane crashed shortly after losing balance. The pilot, Donald McCusker, and another passenger both suffered serious injuries in the crash, and Onassis died the next day from his injuries. Reports into the crash concluded that it had occurred as a result of the reversing of the aileron connecting cables during the installation of a new control column. Manslaughter proceedings initiated against McCusker were later dropped, and six people were also charged over Onassis's death in January 1974, with their indictment indicating that faulty controls had been fitted to his plane. Onassis's father, Aristotle Onassis refused to believe his son's death was an accident.
  • September 20 – Musicians Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen were killed in a Beechcraft E18S due to fly from Natchitoches, Louisiana to Sherman, Texas. The plane crashed into trees shortly after takeoff from Natchitoches Regional Airport.

1974

1977

1979

1981

1985

  • December 31 – Popular singer and actor Ricky Nelson and six others died in a Douglas DC-3 near De Kalb, Texas, United States during an off-airport emergency landing attempt prompted by dense smoke in the cabin; the aircraft struck trees and utility poles, suffering severe damage and bursting into flames. The National Transportation Safety Board was unable to verify the origin of the smoke, stating in the final report that "... the ignition and fuel source were not determined."

1987

1990

1991

1993

1996

1997

1999

2000

2002

2003

  • March 5 – at Saint-Forget, France a Socata Rallye MS.892 (registered as F-BLSO) collided midair with a Cessna F150 (registered as F-BSIQ) killing the instructor and student pilot in the latter aircraft. After investigation, the BEA called for obligatory use of transponders in a large zone around Paris.
  • July 21 – a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya: there were no survivors.
  • October 10 - A Utva 75 crashed after suffering left wing damage when it got shot midair by revolver bullets fired by the guests of the traditional wedding in Ratina, Serbia. The aircraft crashed into overhead power-cables, seriously injuring two on board.
  • December 17 – Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne suffered a collapsed landing gear and a runway excursion during a freefall flight prior to its space launches.

2004

  • October 24 – a Beechcraft Super King Air aircraft, registered N501RH[2] and owned by Hendrick Motorsports, crashed into mountainous terrain in Stuart, Virginia, during a missed approach to Blue Ridge Airport. All ten people on board were killed; among them, members of the Hendrick family including John Hendrick, president of Hendrick Motorsports, and former NASCAR Busch Series driver and owner Ricky Hendrick.

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

  • February 18 - the 2010 Austin suicide attack, in which a Piper Dakota was intentionally flown into the side of a building housing a local IRS office. The pilot and an IRS manager were killed, 2 people were critically injured, and another 13 were also injured.

2013

  • January 4 – A Britten-Norman BN-2A-27 Islander operated by Transaereo 5074, went missing during a flight from Los Roques Airport to Caracas Airport, Venezuela, and was found 23 days later, having crashed. The plane took off about midmorning Friday, in decent conditions. Among the passengers was Vittorio Missoni, the CEO of Missoni, along with three other Italian employees, all of whom died.
  • January 16 – An Agusta AW109 helicopter crashed in Vauxhall, London, after colliding with the jib of a construction crane attached to St George Wharf Tower. Two people died in the incident: the pilot, Captain Pete Barnes; 50, and a pedestrian, Matthew Wood, 39, from Sutton in South London. Five people were taken to hospital and seven more were treated at the scene. In March 2013, BBC London report indicated that the crash could have been prevented, based on a study written to which "19 experts contributed, from organisations including National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the MoD, the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit and the British Helicopter Advisory Board". A number of safety issues had been raised by the study particularly relating to visibility, meteorology and flying in a crowded and complex urban environment but the CAA had not yet made any changes to the air rules. However, the studies and commentary were claimed to be productive.
  • February 26 – A hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt. The crash results in 19 deaths out of 21 passengers. It was the deadliest ballooning disaster in history, surpassing the 1989 Alice Springs hot air balloon crash in Australia.
  • June 29 - An in-air collision between a glider and a Cessna 150 killed four people and a dog near Whistler, B.C.

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

  • May 29 – A Cessna Citation I/SP carrying actor Joe Lara, author, dietician and church founder Gwen Shamblin Lara, and five others crashed into Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee, killing everyone on board.
  • November 5 - A Beechcraft King Air crashed on approach to the Caratinga Airport, near Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil, killing all 3 passengers and 2 crew members on board. Among the victims was Brazilian singer Marília Mendonça.
  • November 24 – American snowboarder and YouTuber Trevor Jacob parachuted out of a Taylorcraft BL-65, which then crashed unoccupied in Los Padres National Forest in California; Jacob suffered minor injuries from the parachute landing. Jacob later posted a video of the event on YouTube, provoking controversy among members of the aviation community who believed that the crash was staged. The FAA revoked Jacob's pilot certificate in 2022 after determining that he crashed the aircraft for the sole purpose of filming it. Jacob pleaded guilty in 2023 to a federal felony charge of destroying the aircraft wreckage without authorization while lying to federal investigators about its disposition.

2022

  • April 2 - A Piper PA-28R carrying two pilots was lost in the English Channel during a flight from the UK to Le Touquet in France. The pilots became disoriented when flying into a cloud. Despite searching, neither plane or pilots has been found.
  • September 4 - A Cessna 551 Citation business jet crashed into the Baltic sea after widely diverting from its course to Cologne, Germany after taking off in Jerez, Spain.

2023

2026

Notes

Note A: General aviation operating rules are U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations 14 CFR Part 91 or the international equivalent.

References