General aviation (GA) in Australia suffered 149 accidents in 2014, the highest number in 10 years. Eleven of those accidents were fatal, the lowest number in 10 years, according to Aviation Occurrence Statistics: 2005–2014, published in December by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). Fifteen of the 149 accidents resulted in serious injuries, the report said. The GA accidents resulted in 17 fatalities and 20 serious injuries (Table 1).
Overall, GA in Australia experienced 1,406 occurrences in 2014, of which 1,256 were incidents, down from 1,399 incidents in 2013, and from a 10-year peak of 1,795 in 2009. Of the 2014 occurrences, 118 were categorized as serious incidents, 15 as serious injury accidents and, as noted, 11 as fatal accidents. In 2013, there were 186 serious incidents, six serious injury accidents, 15 fatal accidents and 90 total accidents. The worst year in the past 10 for total accidents was 2010, when there were 127. The worst year for fatal acciden…
