Aviation Safety: Safer Skies Initiative Has Taken Initial Steps to Reduce Accident Rates by 2007

摘要

The continued growth forecast for U.S. aviation in the coming decade will likely bring a rise in fatal accidents if the current accident rate is not reduced. Commercial aviation, used by most Americans when they fly, experienced an average of 6 fatal accidents a year in the United States in 1994-96; general aviation experienced an average of 380 a year. If the projected growth in flight hours occurs and the fatal accident rate is not reduced, GAO estimates in this report that the number of fatal commercial aviation accidents could rise to 9 per year and the number of fatal general aviation accidents to 484 by 2007. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Congress, and the aviation industry have acknowledged this potential danger and have recommended ways to address it. In 1997, two major commissions on aviation safety recommended reducing the nation's aviation accident rate by 80 percent by 2007. To meet this challenging goal, both the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security and the congressionally mandated National Civil Aviation Review Commission recommended that FAA and the aviation industry work together to identify and address the causes of fatal accidents. To unify government and industry efforts to reduce the accident rate by addressing the greatest threats to aviation safety, FAA announced the Safer Skies initiative in April 1998 with the broad initial goal of reducing the number of fatal accidents per million flight hours by 80 percent by 2007.