2010 Q1 ends with improved Cirrus safety record

As of mid-April 2010, the fatal accident rate of Cirrus aircraft has improved.  Certainly fewer fatal accidents (four) in the dark, winter months of 2009-2010 than any of the previous winters (seven, nine, seven) since 2005-2006.

Note that the fleet has doubled in size since then.  Perhaps this is due to fewer planes flying.  Perhaps this is due to the COPA safety outreach to all Cirrus owners by sending them complementary copies of the Cirrus Pilot magazine safety issue in the fall last year.

The fatal accident rate shows this decline

Cirrus aircraft have had 1.63 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours in the past 12 months and 1.47 in the past 36 months, which compares favorably with overall GA rate of 1.33 in 2009.  (Recall that that rate includes twin engine and jet operations.)

Good news.

However, COPA members were involved in four fatal accidents in 2009:

• Manfred Stolle died in a crash short of the runway at Moncks Corner, SC after reporting smoke in the cockpit
• Nahum Sharfman died in a crash during a trip to E7 in Elba on the Greek island of Kefalonia in bad weather
• William (Skip) Beck died in a return-to-the-runway crash at Rock Hill, SC
• Mark Nichter died in a crash off the coast of Florida after departing St. Petersburg, FL

Many discussions and lessons learned have come from COPA discussions of Cirrus accidents.  For more details, see the wiki Cirrus Accident History.

Cheers
Rick