U.S. plane crash fatalities increased in 2018, NTSB
says
U.S. plane crash fatalities increased in 2018, NTSB
says originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The number of people killed in
plane crashes in the U.S. increased by about 13% in 2018, according to data
released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Civil aviation
fatalities rose from 347 in 2017 to 393 in 2018, NTSB officials said. The
increase means that, on average, there was at least one aviation death per day
in 2018.
The death toll included Jennifer Riordan, the first commercial
airline passenger killed in the U.S. in nine years.
(MORE: Pilots who
safely landed Southwest flight remember moment they knew there was
trouble)
The overwhelming majority of aviation fatalities involve small,
private airplanes, and not large commercial airliners. But on April 17, 2018,
Riordan died on Southwest flight 1380 after shrapnel from the engine broke the
window next to her seat and she was partially sucked out of the
aircraft.
Other passengers pulled her back into the cabin and tried
unsuccessfully to perform CPR.
PHOTO: The engine of a Southwest Airlines plane
after an emergency landing at the Philadelphia airport, April 17, 2018. (Joe
Marcus/Twitter)
According to the Federal Aviation Administration,
there are around three small plane crashes in the U.S. per day.
In 2018,
46 more people were killed in aviation accidents than year before, leading the
fatal accident rate to rise above 1 per 100,000 flight hours for the first time
in two years.
"It is disappointing to see the fatal general aviation
accident rate increase after two years with the rate below 1 per 100,000 flight
hours," NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said in a statement.
NTSB
officials said the statistics do not point to a specific reason for the increase
in aviation fatalities, but that they are committed to addressing and
highlighting any safety related issues.
On Tuesday the NTSB is expected
to hold a board meeting to determine the probable cause of the engine failure
that led to Riordan's death on Southwest flight 1380.
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