Exploring the Potential of Automatic Safety Systems in General Aviation

Since 2010, the overwhelming majority of aviation fatalities in the US have come from general aviation (GA), the aviation segment characterized by small personal aircraft. In fact, as much as 95% of fatalities and 94% of the fatal accidents in US civil aviation occur in GA. However, these statistics are not widely publicized and so most of the public are not aware of, or concerned with, improving safety for these aircraft. Instead, new high profile aviation segments get the overwhelming share of research and technological development dollars while common fixable problems in GA stagnate. This paper seeks to inject data into the discussion by publicizing statistics relevant to aviation as a whole. Additionally, we propose solutions to the problem, in the form of computerized safety systems, and analyze the potential effectiveness of those solutions by delving into the NTSB accident database. Specifically, the paper focuses on four systems, each designed to protect aircraft against some of the most common causes of serious accidents in aviation: midair collisions, low altitude stall/spin, ground collision, or to help with emergency landing. Through this analysis we found that over 71% of the current fatalities in GA could be preventable with one or more of these systems. It is our hope that through continued education, a large percentage of the more than 400 pilots and passengers on average that die in GA every year will be saved. Further, we believe that solving these problems now will free the new high profile aviation segments for having the same problems in the future.

1. Introduction

General Aviation (GA) is a term normally used by members of the civil aviation community to describe operations apart from air carriers or on demand (charter) operations. For instance, GA is defined by an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) working paper [1], in relation to Commercial Air Transport as follows:

Commercial Air Transport-the transport of passengers, cargo or mail for remuneration or hire.

General Aviation – all civil operations other than scheduled air services and non-scheduled air transport operations for remuneration or hire.