By Jim Timm JimTimm

April 2015 

The following are the preliminary NTSB reports of the aviation accidents that have occurred in Arizona from mid-February thru late March. When detailed accident information becomes available, it will be used to develop safety programs and briefings to help pilots learn from the mistakes being made by others and take the action needed to prevent similar accidents from happening to them.

From a flight safety standpoint, this reporting period has again been outstanding. So far, there have not been any fatal accidents this year, and the number of accidents continues to be down and minor in nature. In the last reporting period there were only two accidents, one in late February and one in early March. Neither of the reports contained detailed information from the NTSB and therefore the injuries, if any, are suspected to be only minor.

I find the small number of events that have occurred so far this year to be amazing, and the fact that they all have been apparently minor in nature! So far this year the NTSB has reported five aviation accidents. At the time this report was being prepared, there was an experimental aircraft accident at Sedona with suspected serious and minor injuries that had not had time to be investigated or reported by the NTSB. Last year this same time, we had experienced ten accidents with some serious injuries and a fatality, and in 2013 this time we had had eight accidents with several serious injuries and two fatal accidents, with three fatalities. I wish I knew what has been happening and we would be able to sustain this trend. Are we being more cautious or what? I would like to think that’s true, and our Arizona pilots are not just taking all of their accidents out of state.

Unfortunately, there is still one reported accident, an R22 helicopter, dating back to November 15, 2014 that is still devoid of detailed accident information. As mentioned earlier, these reports devoid of details usually only involve minor or no injuries, but still, they need to be taken seriously and should not have happened.

Based on information available when this summary was prepared, the reported accidents are as follows;


Accident Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Location: Phoenix
Aircraft Type: Piper PA28R-201
NO NTSB INFORMATION AVAILABLE

LEFT LANDING GEAR COLLAPSE ON LANDING

Per information from the Aviation Safety Network; “The aircraft experienced a collapse of the left main landing gear upon landing at Phoenix-Deer Valley Airport. The airplane sustained minor damage and the two pilots onboard were not injured during the incident.”


Accident Date: Saturday, March 7, 2015
Location: San Manuel
Aircraft Type: Sky Ranger II (Experimental)
NO NTSB INFORMATION AVAILABLE