Homebuilt aircraft owners, pilots need to be educated

June 1, 2012

Pilots of small, homemade, or experimental  aircraft in the United States have twice as many accidents and three times the fatalities as the rest of the aviation community, reports The Northwestern. For these types of aircrafts, there are numerous causes of crashes.

Education is the key in applying the new safety recommendations for homebuilt aircraft issued last week by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), according to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).

The EAA officials said that while there is room for improvement, experimental aviation is not an unsafe activity. "It’s not that it’s unsafe; we just know that we can do even better yet," said the vice president of advocacy and safety for EAA.

Because of a large number of accidents and the growing popularity of homebuilt aircraft, the NTSB did a recent study of the experimental aircraft industry. There has been an average of 213 accidents each year, with 55 fatalities, over the last decade.

NTSB recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration and the EAA develop better flight-test plans, encourage more training for pilots, and conduct fuel tests on the aircraft.

Experimental aircraft have lower accident rates in Canada and Britain. Those countries have more inspections of the aircraft, including a fuel-flow check in Canada, that could prevent engine failures.

If you are someone you know has had his or her safety compromised in a private aircraft, the aviation accident attorneys at Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy may be able to help.

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