Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Majumdar, Neelakshi

Committee Member

Campbell, Jenn

Abstract

General aviation student pilot accidents represent a substantial portion of all aviation accidents in the United States. Almost 50% of general aviation accidents involve student pilots. Analyzing historical accident reports is the most common approach to studying accident causation. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates all civil aviation accidents in the US. Using the NTSB data, I analyzed general aviation student pilot accidents in the US between 2013 and 2022. Results indicate that most accidents take place in California and Florida and can be attributed to student pilots between 18 and 65 years of age. Alaska and Maine had the highest accidents per resident student pilot. The top causes of accidents included loss of control, improper use of flight controls, clipping of an object or terrain, and runway excursion. I also modeled ten randomly selected accidents using Majumdar’s state-based approach. From the state-based modeling, I found that NTSB narratives have details about the initial conditions of accidents and explicit failure to recover from loss of control. The findings may help to improve flight training or NTSB reporting methods.

Keywords

aviation; general aviation; instructional aviation accidents; student pilot; student pilot accidents

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