Maintenance-Related Accidents: A Comparison of Amateur-Built Aircraft to all Other General Aviation

In a previous study, Goldman, Fiedler, and King (2002) found that a little over 7% of the 1983–1999 National Transportation Safety Board general aviation (GA) accident investigation reports listed at least one maintenance-related error as the primary cause or factor. Amateur-built aircraft accounted for an average of 14% of these same general aviation maintenance-related accidents, even though amateur-built aircraft account for less than 3% of the GA hours flown. Using the 1983–2001 National Transportation Safety Board GA accident investigation reports, this study compares maintenance-related accidents for amateur-built and all other GA aircraft by type of maintenance procedure, airframe hours, phase of operation, and time since last inspection. For this 18-year sample of maintenance-related accidents, 413 involved amateur-built aircraft, and 3,262 involved all other types of GA aircraft. General aviation flight hours continue to increase: Amateur-built aircraft flight hours, alone, increased from under 300,000 hours in 1993 to about 900,000 in 2000.