Airline safety up in 2011
December 12, 2011, 02:10 pm
A recent study from the International Air Transport Association found global air safety rates, covering total crashes and passenger deaths, have improved by around 50 percent in 2011 compared with the first 11 months in 2010. The data suggests 2011 might be the safest year on record for travelers and the planes they are flying.
However, the data for smaller planes is not as bright. Small planes still have system malfunctions and are more susceptible to pilot errors leading to crashes. Thus, pilot life insurance should be purchased to protect from unexpected accidents.
For example, a single-engine plane recently crashed near the Venice Airport in Florida. The Herald Tribune reported the pilot was gaining altitude near the airport when his engine cut out, causing the plane to slam into a power pole and crash into a building just north of the airport.
The pilot, Oleg Anatollyevich Bachurin, told the source the plane simply stopped out of nowhere and started to plummet.
When the plane hit the power pole, it snapped the structure into three pieces, which, in turn, knocked out the power for 300 residents in the area. The plane then veered off and collided with a building, but no one was hurt on the ground.
In an interview with the source, a witness, Sean Hill, said he was the first person to reach the pilot after the crash. Hill heard a loud bang in his store, and ran outside to see the plane crash into the building. As he helped the pilot out of the safety harness, he noticed fuel was leaking from the aircraft.
"He was dazed and confused but he was in good shape, thank God," Hill said.
Not only was the pole and plane severely damaged in the crash, but the building the plane flew into also suffered damage. Pilot insurance can help cover these damages from crashes.
The source reported Arne Kruithof owned the plane and also runs the Florida Flight Training Center at the Venice Airport. Bachurin was scheduled to take his pilot's test next week from the training center, before he returned home to Russia later this month. Bachurin is one of around 25 students at the training school.
"In every pilot's career, there are at least one or two situations where you come close," Kruithoff told the source.
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