COVINGTON, Ga. (AP) — Two people were killed when a single-engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff late Saturday from a small airport east of Atlanta, authorities said
Police said responding officers found the aircraft and the two victims in woods just north of the runway in Newton County, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of downtown Atlanta.
The crash is being investigated by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board
Number 5 I think? I’ve lost count.
General aviation crashes are not uncommon.
We’ve had one commercial aviation crash in the US since Trump took office. That one crash had nothing to do directly with decisions he made (though decisions he has made certainly make them more likely as time goes on).
But the other four have been general aviation. Those types of accidents, unfortunately, occur more frequently. For example, in September 2024 a couple of men died in a crash near Provo, Utah. I know about this because my wife’s cousin knew them, and had recently spoken to the pilot about his new plane. But that crash wasn’t widely reported.
But since there was a commercial crash, followed by a crash of an air ambulance Learjet into a residential area, everyone is now reporting broadly on every incident. Just like how after Boeing had issues with the MAX8 and MAX9, everything that went wrong with a 737, even ones that were decades old, was suddenly “newsworthy” because people would click on headlines about Boeing. The kinds of maintenance issues that are normally just headaches for travelers and flight crews became national news, as long as the plane was a Boeing. Similarly, now it’s “anything with wings crashes, print it.”
I say all this not to defend Trump, or the year 2025, or anything like that, but just to provide context. You’re hearing about types of incidents you normally don’t hear about, and it’s making it seem like suddenly there are a lot of plane crashes.
Media frenzy is a real thing. If it sells, it prints.
It might be number six, there was also a crash today in Montreal, I think, and fortunately everyone survived.
Edit: here’s a link to the article.
Before everyone jumps on politics, not every plane crash is Trumps fault. Small planes are roughly as safe as riding a motorcycle, stuff like this happens all the time.
Who cares — blame it all on Trump, or Musk, or DOGE. Shout it from the rooftops. This is a perfect cudgel to use against minarchists and MAGAs alike.
Do motorcycles need to get annuals to be considered road worthy? Do you need to pass a medical exam to get a motorcycle license? Do you need a different license to ride your motorcycle when it’s foggy or rainy?
If not, I disagree with your statement.
Not sure how anything you asked is relevant? At the end of the day, general aviation is not super safe to the standard that people expect from commercial / corporate flights.
https://pilotinstitute.com/is-flying-safer-than-driving/#personal-flights
Motorcycle:
16 to 18 fatal motorcycle accidents per million hours ridden
Personal flights:
21.1 fatal accidents per million flight hours
I’m really surprised at that.
Thinking about it though most bikers I know are young, have good reflexes and are mostly using a motorbike for commuting or travelling which is probably lower risk than the cliche teenage fool on a superbike my mind jumped to.
By contrast, the vast majority of light aircraft pilots I know are 60+, many 70+ with extensive health issues, heart problems and likely comparatively poor reflexes.
corporate aviation – the world of bizjets – is relatively safe. This sector only saw 0.48 fatal accidents per million flight hours from 2012 to 2021
General aviation overall:
9.5 fatal crashes per million flight hours
By contrast, the vast majority of light aircraft pilots I know are 60+, many 70+ with extensive health issues, heart problems and likely comparatively poor reflexes.
Totally. I have my student license and everyone at the field is much older than I am. There’s a reason that some plane models are called things like “doctor killers”.
Also there’s a lot of random pilots up in places like Alaska or crop dusting in middle America that just don’t give a fuck about anything. That tends to skew the stats a bit more I think.
Plus planes are checked before every use, and very few people are flying light aircraft in a reckless manner.
I’d be very surprised if there were any stats to backup a claim that light aircraft are as dangerous as motorcycles.
Between 2012 and 2021, this segment saw 21.1 fatal accidents per million flight hours. Fatalities are down 24% from 2012, but it’s still over 27 times the driving fatality rate. That’s even more dangerous than riding a motorcycle.
Comparing accidents per hour might make sense if you’re only looking at them as recreational activities—but if you’re comparing them as forms of transportation, shouldn’t we be comparing accidents per mile?
Yeah you could totally make that argument. A cessna cruises at around 125 knots (143 mph) and google tells me the speed limit on a US highway is 85 mph.
It’s still less safe than driving a car, and not as safe as people assume all flying is (thanks to commercial flying being amazingly safe).
24.83 fatalities in 2019 and 25.95 in 2018 per 100 million miles ridden on motorcycle according to the source of the other article: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812979.pdf
If we take the value for personal flights:
21.1 fatal accidents per million flight hours
I’m going to assume 125 mph as I’m skeptical of your 145 mph figure.
= 21.1 fatal per 125 million miles
= 16.88 fatal per 100 million miles of personal flights
I’d basically conclude that personal flights and motorbike are in the same ballpark whether you’re looking at hours or miles.
No, I would agree that comparing by hour is reasonable. Most light aircraft use (in my area at least) is generally recreational. People are flying because they enjoy the hobby rather than because they have a destination in mind, therefore they’ll fly for a long duration but the distance travelled might not be far
If every train derailment can be blamed on Biden, then trump can fucking eat these.
Where you getting the as safe as a motorcycle number? Aviation is usually very safe compared to automotive, and motorcycles are on the dangerous end of automotive.
Edit: looks like general aviation is 27x more deadly per mile than general driving, and about in the same ball park per mile as motorcycles. That’s a lot higher than I thought.
I pasted the links elsewhere, but it’s important to differentiate between general aviation (small planes, crop dusters, personal pilots, etc) and commercial flying.
Commercial flying is EXTREMELY safe, ridiculously so. The safety culture is amazing. General aviation does it’s best, but at the end of the day people just aren’t as responsible in small planes.
