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7 Answers

Fatality Rates for Instructors

Asked by: 9616 views Flight Instructor, General Aviation

I'm considering a career as a flight instructor but it's making my girlfriend nervous.  Does anyone have any good statistics on the fatality rate for CFI's when giving dual instruction?  I'm trying to reassure her that it's just not that dangerous.

Thanks!

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7 Answers



  1. MaggotCFII on Jan 21, 2011

    A good place to start would be “The Nall Report” published by the AOPA and on-line at AOPA.org, or call them and they should send out a hard copy.
    Here is the link:
    http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/09nall.pdf
    The drive to the airport is probably more dangerous!
    Go for it!

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  2. John A Lindholm on Jan 21, 2011

    Christopher….  I’ve been a CFI for almost 45 years and only remember a couple flight training accidents that were fatal.  Both supposedly happened when they were doing things not related to normal flight training….  in other words, doing stuff that was stupid… with predictable results.  I’ve been to the edge a few times… but fortunately always had an “out” that kept me alive.

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  3. Kent Shook on Jan 21, 2011

    What John said. The one I remember most was the one where an instructor went up with a student to practice “the impossible turn” and discovered that it is, in fact, impossible! 
     
    Er, make that two that I was able to find fairly quickly:
     
    http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20060118X00087&key=1
    http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20051013X01647&key=1
     
    Lesson: Don’t be dumb.
     

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  4. Chuck Toussieng on Jan 24, 2011

    Hey Christopher
    Actually, she may be nervous about your ability to pay the rent being a flight instructor, not about getting hurt 🙂
     
    Seriously though, it’s so safe that I saw my life insurance rates go *down* after adding a CFI to my ratings rather than being a private pilot.  I think the rationale is that you are operating under a more strict environment when training rather than just going for a flight.  Again, this is training vs. a weekend pilot.
     
    You should go for it.  It’s a great thing to help give someone the gift of flying.  Sending your students out for their first solo is almost as fun as your first solo flight.
     
    And for Kent-
    The Impossible Turn isn’t so impossible as long as you execute it properly.  Every pilot should watch “Proficient Flying” by Barry Schiff.  He goes into this subject extensively and other cool stuff like how to land after losing a control surface.
     
    Awesome!
     
     
     
     
     

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  5. skyboyCFI on Jan 25, 2011

    Don’t mean to make a joke of your question, but does anyone know the fatality rate for driving school instructors. 😉

    What will be next, your job at NetJets to demanding? It’ll surely piss her off.

    I’ve know two fatalities. Flying has it’s risks. But so does walking across the street.

    It’d be rude for me to say, Find a girlfriend that likes to fly. So I won’t. :-p

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  6. skyboyCFI on Jan 25, 2011

    I apologize for the above post and the unprofessional comments I made. It was a bad day for me, I got my CFI paycheck and can’t pay my rent. 😉

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  7. CareerInstructor on Nov 19, 2022

    I am very disappointed to see such ignorance of fact and lack of awareness. Not recognizing risk is a serious safety hazard. The facts: being a commercial pilot is consistently top 5 most deadly jobs in the country, usually #2 or #3. Take out the safe, and high volume of airline/cargo pilots and you’ll realize how dangerous flight training, bush flying, and crop dusting is as a career. Let’s break down the numbers.

    Referencing the Liberty University article,
    If there is a death every 200,000 hours (.5:100,000) and the average full time instructor flys 600 hours/year, means:

    200,000 hours / 600 hours/yr= 333 instructors per 200,000 hours, so that’s 1 death every 333 instructors. To match the above deadly jobs links of 100,000 full time equivalent employees: 333 x 300 = 100,000 employees, so 1 death x 300 = 300 deaths per 100,000 equivalent full time employees. 3x more deadly than #1

    This is to convert full time equivalent employees out of hours flown to compare to top 10 deadly job articles, which reference full time equivalent employees per profession.

    People, I run flight schools for a living. Every year I have several instructors needing to take time off because their friend died in a plane crash. All schools around me have wrecked planes (1 fatal) in the last 3 years, except mine. And…. My Ops fly 5-10x more per month than anyone else. Why? Because I tell all my instructors the risk of the job; never let your guard down or think for one second this is a safe job… Stay on your toes.

    https://www.aopa.org/-/media/files/aopa/home/pilot-resources/safety-and-proficiency/accident-analysis/FatalFlightTrainingReport20002015.pdf

    https://www.morrisdewett.com/personal-injury-blog/2021/november/top-10-most-dangerous-jobs/

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/27/the-10-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america-according-to-bls-data.html

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