During 2019, there were no fatal accidents involving EASA-member-state-registered, non-commercial complex (NCC) business airplanes—business jets and multiengine turboprops—compared to one in 2018. According to the agency’s annual year-end safety review released today, the number of nonfatal accidents decreased from three in 2018 to one last year, but the number of serious incidents increased from seven in 2018 to 12 in 2019.
Of the total number of accidents and serious incidents last year, 11 involved business jets and the remainder occurred in multiengine turboprops. However, EASA said, “The low figures in this domain do not allow any [meaningful] comparison between the two main propulsion types.”
The review also shows that an average of 10 fatalities and two serious injuries in NCC business airplane accidents occurred over the previous decade—2009 to 2018. “Due to the size of the airplanes used for the majority of this type of operation, the number of fatalities is low,” concluded the report, “though still with a consolidated average of around one fatality per year.”