Airplane accidents have happened in every state in the country. But certain states seem to have worse luck than others, usually with tragic consequences.
According to a recent news article, here are the states with the most accidents and incidents involving single-engine planes since 2012, based on data from the National Transportation Safety Board:
- California (955 accidents/incidents)
- Alaska (841)
- Texas (836)
- Florida (769)
- Arizona (389)
- Colorado (346)
- Washington State (334)
- Idaho (283)
- Georgia (278)
- North Carolina (261)
According to NTSB, an “accident” is one where somebody was killed or seriously hurt or the aircraft was substantially damaged. An “incident” can involve things like mechanical problems that do not result in serious harm. The new article does not separate incidents from accidents in its data, but we can assume that most of the reported episodes were incidents. For example, 77 percent of cases in Washington State investigated by NTSB did not involve any major injuries.
Why are there so many single-engine accidents?
Single-engine planes are the most-used type of aircraft in the U.S. due to their variety of uses, such as private transportation, hobby flying and crop-dusting. So it makes sense that they would be involved in more incidents and accidents than military and large commercial aircraft.
While many of these incidents were minor and caused no major injuries, airplane crashes frequently cause fatal and catastrophic injuries. An accident usually means tragedy for a family. It can also mean the loss of the deceased’s financial, parental and marital support. Nothing can prevent an aviation accident that has already happened or bring back the victims. But litigation may be necessary to compensate their survivors if the accident was the result of another party’s negligence.