You have likely heard that flying is one of the safest ways to travel. And this is often true when you are looking at flying on a commercial airliner versus driving in your car. Modern commercial airliners almost never crash, and many of the incidents that they do encounter are relatively minor. For instance, there were only two U.S. commercial plane accidents in all of 2019 that included any number of fatalities.
On the other hand, small planes have an accident rate that is vastly higher. In 2019, they were involved in 1,220 accidents, and 233 of those crashes led to fatalities. Another way to look at this is that commercial planes had an accident rate of 0.2 crashes for each 100,000 hours in the air. Small planes had 5.6 crashes for every 100,000 hours, giving them an accident rate that is more than 25 times as high as you’d find with commercial airliners.
Why does this happen?
There are many reasons why small planes are less safe. For one thing, there can be a lack of experience by the pilot. Commercial pilots fly for a living and in very structured situations.
Speaking of structure, regulatory oversight is another issue. Commercial planes carry millions of passengers a day, and there are many regulations about maintenance, safety and other requirements. These may not be in place for small planes or may not be enforced as strictly.
The biggest difference between the two types of crashes is just that small plane accidents tend to go unnoticed by most of the public. When a commercial airliner goes down, it is front page news. But this is precisely because it almost never happens. It is much more likely that someone will pass away while flying on a small plane – or that they will be injured in an accident.
Have you suffered injuries?
No matter what type of plane you were flying on, if you’ve been injured in an aviation accident, it’s crucial that you understand how to seek financial compensation.