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FAASTeam
FAASTeam Notice
Type: General Information
Notice Date: Monday, August 8, 2022
Notice Number: NOTC2538
Digging into Glider Accident Statistics….
This notice expired on
Thursday, June 1, 2023

It is the middle of the summer, and a precursory look at the glider accident statistics looks like we might be doing well this fiscal year (FY22). Although we have had a few tragedies, it looks like the total number of accidents is down slightly, with only 16 accidents listed on the NTSB CAROL search. It also seems that flight hours in gliders might be up. Of course, it all remains to be seen, but we have seen a community very engaged about discussing hazards, risk and factors involved in the accidents, all in the interest of making us all better and safer pilots. So please, keep it up, stay engaged and help us to make this a safer year for our sport.

Now, if you want to look back at trends over the years, and look at both high level statistics and dig down deep into the causes, factors, types and much more, there is a way!

A member of our community has made that much easier for all of us. After watching the FAASTeam annual program on annual/fiscal year glider accidents and reading many Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) reports and programs. Millet Software, a specialist in data links, sources and data extraction developed an easier one-stop drill down for glider accident data (NTSB data) back through at least 2008. The following website will allow you to drill down on this data yourself, along with make charts and diagrams and more. He has made this available to the glider community in order to hopefully allow you to develop insights tailored to your specific needs, operation and club. It is useful, and I have been using it over the past few months. If you would like to try out the data tool set, you can find it here:

Glider Accidents 2008-2021 (milletsoftware.com)

Those that are computer savvy with data access and structuring tools can probably jump right in and figure it out, but others may need a tutorial on how it works. A general tutorial on how similar webpages work can be found here:

https://youtu.be/Vwt8TXdKU7A

So – if you have an interest, like to dig into data or just need some information for your own safety benefit, please take a look.

FMI about the tool & website:
Millet Software - Contact

FMI about the FAASTeam and this notice:
Stephen K. Brown - FAASTeam Program Manager - Boston
781.238.7536
Stephen.K.Brown@FAA.GOV