Rick Beach has written another interesting article for the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) about the dramatic fall in the number of fatal Cirrus accidents thanks in large part due to the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). Rick also included the following chart to illustrate both the number of fatal Cirrus accidents and CAPs saves since mid-1999.
Source: Rick Beach
He noted that over the most recent 9 month period, there has only been 1 fatal Cirrus accident per quarter. However and in the previous 36 months, there were 39 fata Cirrus accidents. In other words, fatal Cirrus accidents have fallen from 1 fatal accident every month to 1 fatal accident every three months.
Rick pointed out that its hard to prove whether there has been a 33% fall in flying hours as Cirrus Aircraft is reporting increased activity. Hence and using their data, he calculated the fatal Cirrus accident rate to have been 1.60 hours per 100,000 flight hours at the end of 3Q2010 and that this rate dropped to 1.05 at the end of 1Q2011,
What could have happened to lower the fatal Cirrus accident rate? Rick hypothesized that it was an August 2010 Safety Alert on Cirrus landings that was put together by both Cirrus Aircraft and COPA for all Cirrus owners or operators.
Hence and if you own or fly a Cirrus aircraft, it might be a good idea to take a much closer look at that particular Safety Alert as it may prevent you from being next quarter’s fatal Cirrus accident statistic.