There were 12 nonfatal accidents, three fatal accidents and 21 fatalities resulting from U.S.-registered business jet crashes in the first nine months of this year, compared with seven nonfatal accidents, five fatal accidents and 15 fatalities in the first nine months of last year, according to safety analyst firm Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. None of the fatal accidents and only two of the nonfatal crashes involved Part 91 operations flown by career pilots, whereas last year eight people were killed in two Part 91 bizjet accidents in which the airplanes were being flown by salaried crews.
The three fatal business jet accidents were a Part 135 Gulfstream III in Aspen, Colo., in which 18 people were killed on March 29; a Part 91 privately operated Citation 501SP near Green Bay, Wis., in which the pilot was killed on April 2; and a Part 135 cargo-carrying Learjet 25 in Ithaca, N.Y., in which both pilots were killed on August 24.
