Saturday, December 11, 1999
By KENNETH LOVETT
Staff Writer
Thursday's plane crash in Hasbrouck Heights was the eighth
fatal accident in New Jersey this year involving small planes. A total of 16 people have
died in those accidents.
But accidents involving small, privately owned planes are
not uncommon, according to statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board. In
the first five days of December alone, there were 15 accidents nationwide involving small
planes.
Last year, out of 39 million general aviation flights,
made up mostly of private and corporate aircraft, there were 1,907 accidents, 361 of which
resulted in fatalities.
According to industry experts, most small-plane accidents
occur during takeoff or landing and result in minor injuries or none at all.
"Fewer people died in small-plane crashes in 1998
than driving, walking, or boating," said Warren Morningstar, spokesman for the
International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations.
According to the NTSB, the number of small-airplane
accidents last year and the number of fatalities resulting from them were the lowest in at
least 17 years.
Cases in which people on the ground are killed by planes
crashing into their neighborhoods are extremely uncommon. Over a 10-year period ending in
1988, an average of just 2.2 people a year died on the ground as a result of plane
crashes.
Pilots are schooled early and often on how to find safe
places to land, said Morningstar, a licensed pilot. Sometimes, luck plays a role, as in
the Hasbrouck Heights crash and one two weeks ago in Newark, when the planes landed in
neighborhoods, but missed doing major damage.
Military officials were prepared to shoot down golfer
Payne Stewart's plane this year, when it flew erratically for five hours on automatic
pilot while everyone on board was unconscious, rather than risk it crashing into a
residential area. The plane ultimately crashed in a desolate area of South Dakota, killing
everyone on board.
"Accidents are not uncommon, but they are happening
less and less, and in the majority of cases, there are no fatalities," said Shelly
Snyder Simi, spokeswoman for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
Industry manufacturers and pilots credit better-built
planes and more stringent pilot-training requirements as the reasons.
Still, that doesn't explain why New Jersey has had such a
large number of fatal plane accidents this year. Local officials and residents fear that
congested skies over New Jersey, pilot inexperience, and the use of older planes might
serve as an explanation.
Industry experts, however, say the accidents were isolated
events that just happened to occur in the same state.
"Is there a Jersey triangle? No," Morningstar
said. "There's no way to explain why things cluster the way they do. It does seem to
happen that way sometimes, where there will be a number of accidents in one area. It's
just random."
Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.
tm