AVIATION ACCIDENTS CAN SOMETIMES BE FARM RELATED
According to the NTSB there were 494 aviation accidents in 2011. There were 800 Marine (boat) accidents and 759 Railroad accidents. The shocking statistic is that there were 32,367 highway accidents which included motorcycles, semi-trucks, automobiles and pedestrians being hit by cars or trucks etc. What is interesting in reviewing the aviation accident statistics for 2011, the FAA only showed 5 accidents that were investigated and had reports on. It seems that some of the statistics might not be completely correct. There was very little data that I found on all 494 aviation accidents when airplanes or helicopter accidents were involved.
However, though a lot of data from the NTSB and FAA show all types of statistics and data on plane and helicopter accidents, highway accidents, boating accidents, motorcycle accidents, they seem to not have a lot of data that I found about statistics on crop duster plane accidents. A caveat is that I did not do a real extensive search on those types of accidents, as I believe that there are a number of farm accidents when it comes to plane accidents. However we do know from the National Agriculture Aviation Association that in 2004 there were about 2,900 crop dusters, dropping from approximately 5000 in 1996. Additionally, 4.4% of aircraft in the United States are crop dusters but only 4.8% of the plane accidents are crop duster related. Much more information can be gleaned from a good article by Mike Linn of USA Today. His article touches on the statistics and life of a crop duster pilot, including the dangers of being such a pilot.
After I reviewed some of the aviation statistics I noticed that a number of accidents were Helicopter accidents. A number of the accidents were from sightseeing helicopters that transport people to beautiful places around the world. Having been in a helicopter sightseeing along the Grand Canyon I can attest that at least our pilot was safe and the flight was enjoyable. Like anything else though there is risk involved in being injured even getting into your car in the morning or walking down the street to a friend’s house.
No matter what, make sure that you look at the safety record of any smaller helicopter or airplane company if you chose to fly in any of their aircraft, especially sight-seeing helicopters. At Penney and Associates injury lawyers, we handle all types of plane, helicopter and any other type of aviation accidents including but not limited to the aforementioned. Penney and Associates has offices located throughout the state of California.