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AOPA's Air Safety Institute (ASI) has released the 35th Richard G. McSpadden Report. The report analyzes general aviation accidents that occurred in 2023, which ASI claims is the most recent year for which full data is available.
The report is updated with accident data on a rolling 30-day cycle to provide the most comprehensive review of aviation safety. The most recent report shows a decline in general aviation accident rates despite an increase in flight hours.
A total of 1,097 general aviation accidents occurred in the U.S, with 186 of those crashes resulting in death. The overall accident rate fell from 4.3 per 100,000 flight hours in 2022 to 3.86 in 2023 and the fatal accident rate declined to 0.65 from 0.68 the previous year.
"A significant increase in flight activity helped drive these rates lower," said Robert Geske, AOPA Air Safety Institute senior manager of aviation safety analysis. Overall, flight activity increased by more than 1.6 million hours—about 6 percent—in 2023 to 28.4 million, from 26.8 million in 2022.
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Non-commercial fixed-wing aircraft accounted for 929 accidents and 59 were commercial fixed-wing accidents. Non-commercial helicopter operations experienced 70 accidents, while commercial helicopter operations suffered 39 accidents. Mechanical issues caused 187 accidents, and 91 non-commercial fixed-wing accidents that could not be attributed to any specific cause.
"Loss of control on the ground and in-flight are still the leading categories of both fatal and non-fatal aviation accidents," said Geske. "We saw an uptick in the number of accidents due to fuel management issues while descent and approach accidents declined sharply. Accidents due to weather, as well as during preflight and taxi phases, trended downward as well."