Atsb transport Safety Report

General aviation

General aviation is further broken down into aerial work (ambulance and emergency medical services, agriculture, mustering, search and rescue, fire control, and survey and photography), flying training, and private/business and sports aviation (see Appendix A – Explanatory notes).

Conservative estimates place at least 90 per cent of the Australian VH- registered aircraft fleet into the category of general aviation. General aviation also accounts for over half of all aircraft movements across Australia (see Figure on page 8). In comparison, large air transport aircraft operated by major airlines make up less than three per cent of Australian-registered aircraft. General aviation aircraft also make up about 40 per cent of the total hours flown by Australian-registered aircraft (as shown in Figure on page 11).

Despite the larger size of general aviation compared to air transport in both fleet size and number of departures, there are comparatively few occurrence reports sent to the ATSB involving general aviation aircraft. In 2013, there were 1,811 GA aircraft involved in 1,664 occurrences reported to the ATSB (representing about a quarter of GA aircraft on the VH- register) (Table ). Although there is a less comprehensive reporting requirement for aircraft not engaged in commercial air transport, the reporting rate is small when compared to 4,324 commercial air transport aircraft involved in 4,206 occurrences in 2013 (multiple occurrences on average for each air transport aircraft on the VH- register).

Aircraft conducting aerial work (EMS operations in particular) and flying training tended to report more occurrences, or were individually associated with more occurrence reports. While this could suggest that certain general aviation operations involve a greater level of risk, it is more likely that the reporting cultures and safety management systems of the operators involved in these types of flying is stronger than in other areas of general aviation. In a large proportion of reported general aviation occurrences (813 incidents, 43 serious incidents and five accidents in 2013), the type of flying that the aircraft was involved in (and in about one-quarter of incidents, whether the aircraft was VH- registered or not) was not reported to the ATSB. In these occurrences, the ATSB was notified by someone other than the pilot(s) of the aircraft involved (such as air traffic control, the public, pilots of nearby aircraft, or aerodrome-based staff). A review of ‘unknown’ general aviation occurrences found that most were associated with:

airspace infringement, or operational non-compliance with published aeronautical information or other regulations) that led to an aircraft proximity issue

ground operation-related occurrences

bird and animal strikes.

While the number of GA aircraft involved in incidents has fallen for the last 5 years, Figure shows that the number of serious incidents has increased. While the rate of accidents has fallen over this time period as shown in Figure , the rate of fatal accidents has increased.

Figure : General aviation occurrences and injuries (VH- and foreign registered aircraft), 2004 to 2013

Figure : General aviation accident and fatal accident rate (per million departures, VH- registered aircraft only), 2004 to 2012

Of the 1,154 general aviation aircraft involved in accidents between 2004 and 2013, more than 1 in 10 were fatal accidents, with 247 lives lost. In the most recent year where departures information was available (2012), the accident rate per million departures was almost six times as large in GA as in commercial air transport¹⁴, although the rate for GA showed a decrease compared to previous years. The fatal accident rate in GA increased in 2012 despite the accident rate decreasing over several years.

Accident types and severity varies across different types of general aviation flying, as some types of operations involve a greater level of accepted operational risk (like low flying in aerial agriculture and mustering). Over the 2004 to 2012 period, per million hours flown:

Emergency medical services had the lowest fatal accident rate (1.4 per million hours flown) and the lowest accident rate (6.8 per million hours flown).

Flying training also had a low fatal accident rate (2.1 per million hours flown), although the accident rate was notably higher (40.5 per million hours flown).

Aerial mustering showed a similar trend to flying training, with a low fatal accident rate (5 per million hours flown) and a higher accident rate (57.6 per million hours flown).

Survey and photographic flights had a fatal accident rate (15.8 per million hours flown) that was slightly above the GA average (12.6 per million hours flown), but a lower accident rate compared to average (58.7 versus 91.1 per million hours flown).

Aerial agriculture had the highest accident rate of all types of GA flying (173.3 per million hours flown), and a fatal accident rate that was almost twice the GA average (21.3 per million hours flown).

Private/business/sport flying (not including gliding) had the highest fatal accident rate of all types of GA flying (24.1 per million hours flown), higher than GA operation types such as aerial agriculture and aerial mustering which inherently involve greater risk. The accident rate (155.2 per million hours flown) was significantly above the GA average, and was below only aerial agriculture.

Gliding, relative to private and sport aviation, had a relatively low fatal accident rate (8.7 per million hours) and accident rate (36.3 per million hours).