2008 Nall Report - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

2008 NALL REPORT
Dedication
The Joseph T. Nall Report is the AOPA Air Safety
Foundation’s annual review of general aviation aircraft
accidents that occurred during the previous year. The
report is dedicated to the memory of Joe Nall, an NTSB
Board member who died as a passenger in an airplane
accident in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1989.
Final vs. Preliminary Statistics
This report is based on NTSB reports of accidents
involving fixed-wing general aviation aircraft weighing
12,500 pounds or less. To provide the most current
safety information, AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF)
gathered NTSB data on 2007’s accidents throughout
2008. Probable cause had been determined for 1,230
of 1,385 accidents (88.8 percent) when the data were
frozen for this year. The remaining 11.2 percent were
based on preliminary data.
Prior-year comparisons suggest that this mix of
preliminary and final data will not significantly
change the conclusions presented here when all final
reports are analyzed.
A series of refinements to the methods used to
conduct the FAA’s annual General Aviation and
Part 135 Activity Survey have improved the ASF’s
ability to estimate the flight-time exposure of the
general aviation fleet. Estimates of accident rates
in this year’s report are based on these improved
measures of exposure, and the rate estimates for
1998 – 2006 have been revised accordingly to allow
more accurate comparison. Furthermore, prior
editions reported the number of aircraft involved
in accidents rather than the number of accidents
per se (leading midair collisions, for example, to
be counted twice). This year’s report distinguishes
between the two, where appropriate.
As a supplement to the information contained in this
report, ASF offers its accident database online. You
may search the database by selecting specific criteria.
To view the database, visit www.asf.org/database.
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation gratefully
acknowledges the technical support and assistance of:
National Transportation Safety Board
Federal Aviation Administration
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
Dr. Stephen Veronneau of the FAA’s Civil
Aerospace Medical Institute provided data on flight
experience in the active pilot population as reported
on applications for medical certificates.
Financial support for the Nall Report comes from
the Manuel Maciel Safety Research Endowment
and donations to the AOPA Air Safety Foundation.
Publisher: Bruce Landsberg
Statistician: David Jack Kenny
Writer: Neil C. Krey
Editors: David Jack Kenny, David Wright,
Kathleen Vasconcelos
Art Director: Angela Ebersole