List of accidents and incidents involving general aviation

This list of accidents and incidents involving general aviation is grouped by the years in which the accidents or incidents occurred. "General aviation" here includes private as well as corporate aircraft operating under general aviation rules,^{[note A]} i.e. not flights of airliners, commuter or military aircraft.

Overall, this is an incomplete listing, but is intended to be a complete listing of those accidents and incidents with WorldHeritage articles. For more exhaustive lists, see the Aircraft Crash Record Office or the Aviation Safety Network.

1912

• May 13 – A Flanders Monoplane crashed at Brooklands, Surrey, United Kingdom, killing the pilot and his passenger. The accident was investigated by the Royal Aero Club, which issued the first-ever report into an aviation accident and established the science of aviation accident investigation.

1935

• August 15 – Wiley Post and passenger Will Rogers died in the crash of Post's modified seaplane en route from Fairbanks to Point Barrow, Alaska, while taking off from a lagoon, after landing to ask directions.

1937

• July 2 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean en route in their Lockheed Electra 10E to Howland Island during an attempt to circumnavigate the world.

1959

• February 3 – A Beechcraft Bonanza carrying musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, in what has become known as "The Day the Music Died".

1972

• October 16 – A twin-engine Cessna 310 carrying Alaskan House Representative Nick Begich and House majority leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana disappears during a flight from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska. The plane was flying to a campaign fundraiser for Begich. The aircraft's wreckage was never found, and a 39 day search is called off on November 24. The accident prompts the United States Congress to pass a law mandating emergency locator transmitters in all U.S. civil aircraft.

• December 31 – Baseball player Roberto Clemente dies when his chartered DC-7 crashes into the ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, immediately after takeoff. Clemente was attempting to deliver relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after a massive earthquake on December 23.

1973

• January 22 - The personal Piaggio P.136L-2 airplane of Alexander Onassis crashed at Ellinikon International Airport in Athens, Greece.^[1] A few seconds after takeoff from runway 33, the plane's right wing dropped and stayed down, and the plane crashed shortly after losing balance.^[2] The pilot, Donald McCusker, and another passenger both suffered serious injuries in the crash, and Onassis died the next day from his injuries.^[3] Reports into the crash concluded that it had occurred as a result of the reversing of the aileron connecting cables during the installation of a new control column. Manslaughter proceedings initiated against McCusker were later dropped,^[4] and six people were also charged over Onassis's death in January 1974, with their indictment indicating that faulty controls had been fitted to his plane.^[5] Onassis's father, Aristotle Onassis refused to believe his sons death was an accident.^[6]

• September 20 – Musicians Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen are killed in a Beechcraft E18S due to fly from Natchitoches, Louisiana to Sherman, Texas. The plane collides with a tree at the end of the runway of Natchitoches Regional Airport.

1979

• August 2 – Cessna 501, N15NY. Thurman Munson, catcher for the New York Yankees, died in a crash of his personal jet while practicing touch-and-go landings at Akron-Canton Regional Airport.
• August 24 – A Stearman biplane, aircraft registration number N48784,^[7][8] flew into electrical transmission lines that cross Lake Natoma at Mississippi Bar.^[9][10][11] Jacquelyn Burnett,^[12] a passenger in the biplane, was killed. The pilot, Stephen Francis Williams, was convicted of manslaughter.^[13] His conviction marked the first time in United States history that a pilot was held criminally responsible for the death of a passenger. Williams had previously killed his own 12-year-old daughter, Patricia Anna Williams,^[14] by attempting a takeoff in dense fog at the Salinas Municipal Airport.^[15]

1985

• December 31 - Popular singer and actor Ricky Nelson and six others were killed during a failed emergency landing in a Douglas DC-3, registration number N711Y, in a field near De Kalb, Texas. The aircraft's cabin had filled with dense smoke after the flight crew attempted to turn on a cabin heater while en route to Dallas, Texas from Guntersville, Alabama; the aircraft struck trees and utility poles, suffering severe damage and bursting into flames. The NTSB was unable to verify the origin of the smoke, stating in the final report that "... the ignition and fuel source were not determined."^[16][17]

1987

• May 28 – Mathias Rust flew illegally into Soviet airspace in a Cessna 172 and landed in Moscow's Red Square.

1996

• April 11 – Cessna 177B, N35207. Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot trainee who was attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States, died when her aircraft crashes after takeoff from Cheyenne Regional Airport in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
• December 24 – A Learjet 35A crashed near Lebanon, New Hampshire which led to the longest missing aircraft search in that state's history, lasting almost three years.

1997

• October 12 – singer-songwriter John Denver was killed when the Long-EZ aircraft he was piloting crashed just off the coast of California at Pacific Grove, shortly after taking off from the Monterey Peninsula Airport.

1999

• July 16 - John F. Kennedy, Jr. and passengers, wife Carolyn Bessette and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, were killed when the Piper PA-32R-301 Saratoga II he was piloting, registration number N9253N, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during a flight from Fairfield Township, Essex County, New Jersey bound for Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The NTSB determined the crash was caused by: "the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation".^[18]
• August 7 – Pulitzer Prize–winning publisher Ted Natt boarded a helicopter from Oysterville, Washington to Kelso, Washington, which later crashed six miles east of Knappa, Oregon. The crash was not discovered until September 11.^[19]
• October 25 – A Learjet 35 flying between Orlando, Florida and Dallas, Texas crashed after flying for almost four hours and 1,500 miles (2,400 km), until it ran out of fuel. Among the six people on board were golf star Payne Stewart and Bruce Borland.

2002

• January 5 – A Cessna 172 stolen and flown by a teenager crashed into the side of the Bank of America Tower in downtown Tampa, Florida.
• April 18 – A Rockwell Commander A112 crashed into the Pirelli Tower in Milan, Italy.
• July 10 – A Sikorsky H-34 crashed and sank into the Brookville Reservoir in Brookville, Indiana. The pilot Steve Myler and co-pilot Joseph Rukazina, both made it out while the mechanic Michael Jarski lost his life.^[20]

2003

• March 5 – at Socata Rallye MS.892 (registered as F-BLSO) collided midair with a Cessna F150 (registered as F-BSIQ) killing the instructor and student pilot in the latter aircraft. After investigation, the BEA called for obligatory use of transponders in a large zone around Paris.^[21]
• July 21 – a South African registered aircraft, carrying 12 passengers and two crew, crashed into Mount Kenya: there were no survivors.^[22][23]
• December 17 – Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne suffered a collapsed landing gear and a runway excursion during a freefall flight prior to its space launches.

2006

• January 2 – A Cessna 206 filled with skydivers crashed into a dam near Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.^[24]
• March 13 – Television personality Peter Tomarken and his second wife Kathleen are killed when Tomarken's Beechcraft Bonanza A36, N16JR, crashes a few hundred feet off shore in Santa Monica Bay after attempting climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport in California.
• October 11 – A Cirrus SR20 flown by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and an instructor crashed into the Belaire Apartments in New York City.
• December 10 – A Bell 412SP air ambulance helicopter crashed near Cajon Pass, killing the three member crew.

2007

• July 27 – Two TV news AS-350 AStar helicopters collided in mid-air over Phoenix, Arizona, killing all four aboard.
• November 16 – Inclement weather caused a BHP Billiton AS350-B2 helicopter,^[25] to crash in Angola, killing the helicopter's five passengers.^[26]

2008

• March 30 – A privately registered Cessna 501 Citation carrying five people crashed into two homes in Farnborough, Kent, United Kingdom, after taking off from London Biggin Hill Airport. On board were former racing drivers Richard Lloyd and David Leslie.
• May 2 – A chartered South Sudan Air Connection Beechcraft 1900 carrying 2 crew and 19 passengers, including South Sudan defense minister Dominic Dim Deng, crashed near Rumbek, Sudan while en route from Wau to Juba. There were no survivors.^[27]
• May 30 – A chartered 12-seater Pilatus PC-6 crashed in central Spain after shedding a wing, killing the pilot and a passenger. Other skydivers escaped.
• September 19 – A Learjet 60 crashed near West Columbia, South Carolina. Travis Barker and DJ AM survived while four others died.
• November 4 – A Learjet 45 carrying Mexican interior secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and 8 others plunged into a Mexico city neighborhood, killing all on board and 7 on the ground.

2009

• 4 January – A Sikorsky S-76 Spirit helicopter crashes into a marshy area near Bayou Penchant, Louisiana. The helicopter operated by Petroleum Helicopters, Inc was flying oil workers to a Shell Petroleum Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico from Gibson, Louisiana resulting in 8 fatalities and 1 passenger rescued by a United States Coast Guard helicopter.^[28]
• February 15 – A Bell 205 Helicopter while flying in dense mist and light rain crashes into Polhuín Hill, Chanco, Cauquenes Province, Chile. The accident occurred when the Bell helicopter owned by Flight Services Helicópteros was ferrying local fire-fighters from a Eucalyptus plantation to a forest fire in the Quirihue Sector of the Eighth Region. The wreckage from the accident was scattered over a large area killing the pilot a former Chilean Airforce officer and 12 fire-fighters from the Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion (CELCO) company.^[29]
• February 18 – An Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma Helicopter (G-REDU) flying from the heliport at Aberdeen Airport to a BP ETAP Oil Platform located 120 nautical miles (195 km) east of Aberdeen, Scotland is forced to ditch into the North Sea 500m short of its destination. A major maritime rescue operation for the ditched Super Puma owned by Bond Offshore Helicopters was coordinated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at the Aberdeen HM Coastguard Rescue Centre involving a RAF Sea King helicopter from No. 202 Squadron RAF Lossiemouth and a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss.^[30] Three of the passengers were rescued by one of a pair of Bond Helicopters involved in the rescue and the remaining 15 passengers successfully rescued by an oil-rig support vessel.^[31] A further Super Puma owned by Bond Helicopters is involved in a second North Sea ditching on 1 April 2009.
• 12 March – A Sikorsky S-92A Helicopter (C-GZCH) flying from St. John's International Airport, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to the offshore SeaRose FPSO in the White Rose oil field was forced to ditch in the North Atlantic Ocean, 30 nautical miles (56 km) east-southeast of Newfoundland. The Sikorsky S-92 owned by Cougar Helicopters issued a mayday after experiencing low oil pressure in the main gear-box and requesting emergency clearance to return to St.John's airport. The aircraft ditched in the North Atlantic approximately 10 minutes after issuing the mayday at 7:58 am ET resulting in 17 fatalities and 1 passenger rescued from the crash site.^[32]
• March 22 – A Pilatus PC-12 flying into Bert Mooney Airport outside Butte, Montana from Oroville, California crashed 500 feet (150 m) short of the runway, around 15:27 local time (21:27 GMT), killing fourteen^[33] people.^{[34][35][36][37]}
• April 1 – An Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma (G-REDL) flying from the BP Miller Oil Platform located 168 nautical miles (270 km) north-east from Aberdeen, Scotland to the heliport at Aberdeen Airport crashes into the North Sea 11 nautical miles (20 km) east of Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The Super Puma helicopter owned by Bond Offshore Helicopters made a brief mayday call at 12:54 pm BST and was then seen to crash 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) from a supply vessel resulting in the death of 2 crew and 14 passengers.^[38] The cause of the accident was the catastrophic failure of the main rotor gearbox, which caused the main rotor to detach and severed the pylon and tail boom.^[39]

2013

• January 4 – A Britten-Norman BN-2A-27 Islander operated by Transaereo 5074, goes missing during a flight from Los Roques Airport to Caracas Airport, Venezuela, and is presumed to have crashed.^[40] The plane took off about midmorning Friday, in decent conditions. Among the passengers was Vittorio Missoni, the CEO of Missoni, along with three other Italian employees.^[41]
• January 16 – An National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the MoD, the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit and the British Helicopter Advisory Board". A number of safety issues had been raised by the study — particularly relating to visibility, meteorology and flying in a crowded and complex urban environment — but the CAA had not yet made any changes to the air rules. However, the studies and commentary were claimed to be productive.^[46]
• February 26 – A hot air balloon crashes near Luxor, Egypt. The crash results in 19 deaths out of 21 passengers.^[47][48] It was the deadliest ballooning disaster in history, surpassing the 1989 Alice Springs hot air balloon crash in Australia.^[49][50]

2014

• March 13 - An AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter of Haughey Air crashes shortly after take-off from Gillingham, Norfolk, United Kingdom killing all on board.
• July 23 - An American pilot attempting to fly around the world in 30 days to promote education crashed with his plane in the Pacific Ocean, killing him and leaving his father, also on board, missing.^[51][52]
• September 5 - A Socata TBM-700 crashes in Jamaica, several hours after plane experiences rapid depressurization and all occupants go unconscious.
• December 8 - An Embraer Phenom 100 light jet with tail number N100EQ crashed into a suburban home in Gaithersburg, Maryland while on approach to runway at Montgomery County Airpark. All three on board and three people on the ground died in the crash. ^[53]

Notes

Note A: ^ General aviation operating rules are U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations 14 CFR Part 91 or the international equivalent.

References