Updated November 27, 2011
Introduction
Cirrus Design builds a safe airplane. Yet, despite many safety improvements, fatal accidents continue to occur.
Since the introduction of the SR20 in mid-1999, there have been 83 fatal accidents in just over 5,000 production Cirrus SR2x aircraft. In those accidents, 165 people have perished with 18 people seriously injured (including 3 on the ground).
In the same time frame, there have been 27 "saves" with the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System in which 51 people survived with 1 fatality.
Cirrus Fatal Accident Rate
Because Cirrus Design collaborates with COPA, we have access to their compilation of fleet flying hours. This enables COPA to calculate the following fatal accident rates.
Past 36 months: 1.42
We use a 3-year average because, with a modest fleet size of 5,000 airplanes flying about 986,000 hours per year, the accident rate varies substantially with only a few accidents. By contrast, the GA fleet contains 200,000 airplanes flying about 20,000,000 hours per year, or about 40 times more aircraft flying about 20 times more hours.
In the past 36 months, there have been 39 fatal accidents for a rate of 1.42 fatal accident per 100,000 hours of flying time.
Past 12 months: 1.52
In the past 12 months, there have been 15 accidents in approximately 986,000 flight hours for a rate of 1.52 fatal accidents per 100,000 hours.
Lifetime of the fleet: 1.63
During the lifetime of the Cirrus SR2X fleet since mid-1999, there have been 83 fatal accidents in 5.1 million flying hours for a rate of 1.63 per 100,000 hours.
GA fleet: 1.30
This compares to the overall general aviation rate for fixed-wing non-commercial single-engine aircraft of 1.30 for 2009 (ref Nall report published by the Air Safety Foundation).
Improving Cirrus Pilot Safety
After two fatal accidents within 5 days in January 2003, the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association, Cirrus Design and our insurers focused on a concerted effort to improve pilot safety, training and decision making. COPA operates several safety programs that further our mission: