Occurrences by aircraft type

Occurrences by aircraft type

Of the 15,247 aircraft on the Australian civil aircraft (VH-) register at the time of writing, fixed-wing aeroplanes accounted for 84 per cent of all aircraft (11,527 powered fixed-wing aeroplanes, 239 motorised gliders and 998 unpowered gliders). Rotary-wing aircraft accounted for 14 per cent (2,100 aircraft). The remaining two per cent (382 aircraft) were balloons. Australian-registered recreational aircraft are additional to these figures. There were 5,211 aircraft registered with Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus) in mid-2013 (4,363 aeroplanes and motorised gliders and 848 weight shift aircraft), and 259 gyrocopters registered with the Australian Sport Rotorcraft Association (ASRA) at the time of writing. Further to this figure are weight-shift aircraft registered by the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia (HGFA).

In this section:

aeroplanes refers to all manned, VH- registered powered fixed-wing aircraft, and to recreational powered aeroplanes registered by RA-Aus

balloons refers to all manned, VH- registered hot air balloons and lighter-than-air craft, including dirigibles

helicopters refers to all manned, VH- registered rotary-wing aircraft

gliders refers to all manned, VH- registered non-powered fixed-wing aircraft, and manned, VH-registered and non-VH- registered powered gliders

gyrocopters refers to rotary-wing aircraft registered with ASRA, marked with a G- registration

remotely piloted aircraft refers to unmanned fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and lighter-than-air craft that are controlled by a ground-based operator. These aircraft may be VH- registered or not registered by CASA.

weight shift refers to manned aircraft which are controlled by human movement. They include hang gliders, paragliders, powered parachutes, weight-shift trikes and microlights. These aircraft may be registered with HGFA, marked with a T1- or T2- registration, or with RA-Aus marked with a 32- registration.

As flying activity data is only available for some of these types of aircraft, accident rates are only provided for aeroplanes, helicopters, and recreational aircraft types (recreational aeroplanes, gyrocopters, and weight-shift aircraft).

Differences in accidents between operation groups and aircraft type

There are considerably more accidents in Australia involving aeroplanes than other aircraft types. In the last 2 years as reporting of recreational aircraft accidents to the ATSB has improved, recreational aeroplanes have been involved in a similar number of accidents to general aviation aeroplanes. In 2013, there were about twice as many fatal recreational aviation accidents than were recorded in 2012 (Table ).

Table : Number of accidents involving Australian-registered aircraft, by aircraft type, 2004 to 2013

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aeroplanes
Air transport	12	12	10	17	23	9	20	16	9	8
General aviation	97	78	58	85	84	80	84	73	60	59
Recreational	6	1	2	17	36	33	42	43	50	56
Balloons
Air transport	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
General aviation	1	0	1	2	3	3	2	3	1	0
Helicopters
Air transport	4	0	1	5	6	1	3	5	4	5
General aviation	34	31	25	25	34	34	36	25	27	24
Gliders
General aviation	10	9	6	5	4	3	3	12	12	8
Recreational	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gyrocopters
Recreational	2	1	2	4	2	4	6	4	6	7
Remotely Piloted Aircraft
General aviation	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Weight Shift
Recreational	2	4	0	8	3	4	9	13	28	8

Helicopters were involved in about 28 per cent of all general aviation (GA) accidents and 29 per cent of fatal accidents in the last 10 years, even though they accounted for 14 per cent of the Australian VH-registered fleet and flew far less hours than aeroplanes. Recreational aircraft contributed an even larger proportion of the total number of fatal accidents. Between 2004 and 2011, 18 per cent of all accidents and 29 per cent of all fatal accidents in Australian aviation involved recreational aircraft, even though they contributed just nine per cent of the recorded hours flown by aircraft in Australia over this period (Table ).

Table : Number of fatal accidents involving Australian-registered aircraft, by aircraft type, 2004 to 2013

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Aeroplanes
Air transport	0	2	1	1	2	0	1	2	1	1
General aviation	6	10	12	9	18	7	8	6	14	12
Recreational	5	1	2	8	1	5	3	3	1	9
Balloons
Air transport	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
General aviation	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Helicopters
Air transport	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
General aviation	4	3	4	2	2	8	4	9	4	2
Gliders
General aviation	1	3	3	1	2	1	0	1	2	1
Recreational	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gyrocopters
Recreational	2	1	2	4	0	2	2	0	3	1
Remotely Piloted Aircraft
General aviation	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Weight Shift
Recreational aircraft	2	3	0	4	1	3	1	3	2	2

Collision with terrain involving an Ayres S2R Thrush (VH-JAY), near Hyden, Western Australia
(ATSB investigation AO-2013-183)

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