There were no fatal accidents involving business jets anywhere in the first half of this year–the first clean slate for a first half since 2009, according to AIN research. The tally of zero worldwide stands in bright contrast to the 15 fatalities in four crashes involving U.S.-registered business jets in the first half of last year, one of the highest fatality counts for N-numbered jets in a six-month period and greater than the number of deaths in all of 2013. The four fatal accidents last year happened to aircraft operating under Part 91.
However, the nonfatal accident picture in the first half of this year was not as rosy. The 11 nonfatal U.S. business jet accidents in January through June were nearly three times the four mishaps in the comparable period last year.
Of the 11 nonfatal accidents in the first half of this year, eight happened under Part 91, and one each under Part 91K, 135 and public/government operations.
The one incident shown under Manufacturers in the U.S. jet charts refers to a HondaJet mishap. On June 11 this year, HondaJet N420HJ blew a tire on landing. According to Honda Aircraft, the first conforming HondaJet “sustained minor scratches and damage.” The new aircraft is equipped with anti-skid brakes, but the manufacturer said the new twinjet was not testing the anti-skid or emergency braking systems when the tire blew.
Fatalities in U.S.-registered turboprop accidents remained unchanged: 16 people died in five crashes in the first half of this year (four while operating under Part 91 and one under Part 135) versus 16 who perished in six accidents last year (all while flying under Part 91). The 15 nonfatal crashes involving N-numbered turboprops (12 Part 91 and three Part 135) more than doubled the seven reported last year.
In the first six months of last year, three crashes involving non-N-numbered business jets killed 14 people (zero fatalities this year). None of the fatal accidents last year involved private or charter business flights. Four fatal crashes involving non-U.S.-registered turboprops took the lives of 22 people in the first six months of this year, compared with 15 fatalities in four accidents in the same period last year. The number of nonfatal crashes involving propjets also rose in the first half of this year, to six this year versus four in the same period last year.
AIN statistics do not include the fatal crashes this year of a Cessna 441 Conquest in Venezuela on April 1 or a Hawker 800 in Colombia on May 20. In both events, officials from the investigating country described the flights as illegal drug-smuggling operations.