• Approximately 80 percent of all plane crashes occur shortly before or after takeoff or landing due to human error or mechanical failures.
• According to an aviation accident survey of nearly 2,200 plane crashes from 1950 to 2004, the number one cause of aviation accidents is pilot error, which results in 45 percent of accidents. Undetermined causes: 33 percent. Mechanical failure: 13 percent.
• In 2005, there were a total of 1,764 aviation accidents in the United States that resulted in 600 fatalities. Low-level maneuvering of an aircraft was the leading cause of fatal aviation accidents from 1998 to 2004.
• In 2004, more than 70 percent of all plane crashes that ended in serious injury or fatality occurred during a personal flight. General aviation accidents occur more frequently than airline or business aviation accidents.
• The most recent statistics on midair collisions has shown a steady decline. In 2004, there were 10 midair accidents resulting in 10 fatalities compared to 11 collisions in 2003 with 23 deaths.

Some of the most common causes of aviation accidents include:

• pilot error,
• negligence by a flight service employee or air traffic controller,
• faulty equipment or mechanical failure,
• weather,
• and sabotage.
• Violations of Federal Aviation Administration safety regulations and aviation law are also a frequent cause of aviation accidents.

Family Sues FAA After Plane Crash

May 23, 2007 -

Years after a small Cessna plane went down off the First Coast in Florida, new questions surface involving the accuracy of the FAA’s guidance.

Gary Tillman, an experienced pilot, his daughter Hannah, and two of her friends crashed over the Atlantic in December 2005. Both friends were brought to safety by rescuers, one surviving, and the other later dying. The bodies of Tillman and his daughter were found by crews weeks later in the wreckage.

The Suit

In a lawsuit filed by the Tillman family, the accident is blamed on poor visibility and misguidance by the FAA. The lawsuit states that the FAA directed Tillman to fly over the ocean, but while over the ocean, the engine began to lose power.

“He asked the controller to steer him to the beach to safety, and instead of doing that, they turned him out over the water for reasons we’ll never understand,” says Woody Wilner, the attorney representing the Tillman family. “They had a duty to bring him back and did not do that.”

The lawsuit also claims that although the FAA was aware that Tillman couldn’t maintain altitude, they “failed to notify the United States Coast Guard to begin rescue attempts.”

Family In Waiting

“It’s been a tough year for us you know,” says Earl Tillman, Gary Tillman’s father. “In my heart when he asked for vectors to the beach and could have gotten that, he would have had a successful landing.”

Tillman is survived by his wife and two children. The case is currently pending in litigation and the FAA has declined to comment on the incident.

(Source: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/)

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