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Fatalities in General Aviation: From Balloons to Helicopters

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Forensic Pathology Reviews

Part of the book series: Forensic Pathology Reviews ((FPR,volume 6))

Abstract

General Aviation (GA) has shown the highest proportion of accidents and fatalities in aviation. The countries with the highest number of GA flights (USA, UK, and Australia) all show high accident rates for this category. The developments in the approaches to aviation safety, in particular in relation to GA, show an increasing understanding of the determining factors of fatalities and the most promising strategies to prevent them.Occurrences in aviation that involve fatalities are universally classified as accidents. Accidents are in contrast with incidents, which only feature minor injury and minor damage to the aircraft. Accident statistics have dominated the study of aviation safety and have benefitted from new approaches from organizational psychology. The relevance of these approaches to GA accident investigations is limited due to the highly diversified operations and the limited organizational structure of this industry.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY, 10024, USA

    Alex de Voogt MD

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  1. Alex de Voogt MD
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Correspondence to Alex de Voogt MD .

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  1. , Medizinische Abteilung, Asklepios Klinik Harburg, Eißendorfer Pferdeweg 52, Hamburg, 21075, Germany

    Elisabeth E. Turk

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de Voogt, A. (2011). Fatalities in General Aviation: From Balloons to Helicopters. In: Turk, E. (eds) Forensic Pathology Reviews. Forensic Pathology Reviews, vol 6. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-249-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-249-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-248-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-249-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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