The number of deaths caused by business aviation accidents in the United States has risen dramatically during the first 6 months of 2019, compared with the same period last year.
Statistics gathered by AINonline reveal that 19 people lost their lives in four business jet accidents so far this year, compared with only one fatality in a single crash last year.
The stats also reveal a fourfold increase in the number of deaths linked to turboprop crashes – 28 fatalities from five crashes in 2019 contrasts with three turboprop accidents in 2018, which killed seven people in total.
Three people were killed when a Rockwell Sabreliner crashed on April 12, while the disappearance of a Bombardier Challenger 601-3A over Mexico on May 5 is believed to have resulted in the deaths of all thirteen passengers. Two more died when a Cessna Citation SII crashed on May 22, followed just two days later by a Citation 560 accident at sea which killed two people.
Two Beech King Air accidents, occurring only nine days apart in June, claimed the lives of 21 of the 28 people killed in turboprop crashes this year. Four people perished in the breakup of a turboprop converted Piper Malibu on June 7, followed closely by the death of the pilot and sole passenger of a Cessna Conquest on June 10. Six people died in a mid-air collision between a piston-powered de Havilland Beaver and a de Havilland Turbine Otter on May 13.