For the fifth year in a row, there were no fatal business jet accidents in Canada in 2021, according to statistics recently published by the nation’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB). However, the TSB recorded 22 fatal air transportation accidents that killed 32 last year. This is up from 12 fatal accidents that killed 16 in 2020.
Eight of the 32 fatalities in 2021 involved commercial operations: one in an air-taxi accident of a turbine helicopter and seven in aerial work accidents. There were no fatalities involving airliners, commuter, or turbine air-taxi airplanes, nor in flight training. The remaining fatalities in 2021 were linked to privately registered aircraft on non-business flights.
The only turbine airplane fatal accident last year was the crash of a Rockwell Commander 690B operating as a private flight in which the sole-occupant pilot was killed. Shortly after rotation, the turboprop twin rolled into a left bank, continued to roll, and then impacted the runway in an inverted attitude.
The last fatal business jet accident in Canada occurred on Oct. 13, 2016, when a privately operated Cessna Citation 500 on an IFR flight at night lost control and crashed shortly after departure. The pilot and three passengers were killed.