Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021 May 1;92(5):294-302. doi: 10.3357/AMHP.5799.2021.
Air taxis conduct nonscheduled transport and employ aircraft in various performance categories hereafter referred to as low, medium, and high performance, respectively. No study has yet addressed fixed-wing air taxi safety by performance category. Herein, we compared accident rates/occupant injury across air taxi airplane fleets grouped by performance category and identified human factors contributing to fatal accidents for airplanes in that category with the highest mishap rate. Accidents (20042018) in the United States were identified from the National Transportation Safety Board database. General Aviation/Part 135 Activity Surveys provided annual fleet times. Fatal accident contributing factors were per the Human Factors Classification System (HFACS). Statistics utilized Poisson distributions, Chi-Square/Fisher, and Mann-Whitney tests. There were 269 air taxi mishaps (53 fatal) identified. Over the 15 yr, the accident rate (1.10/million flight hours-all categories) declined 50%, largely due to a reduction in medium/high performance category airplane crashes. However, little temporal change was observed for low performance airplanes (1.5/million flight hours) and injury severity trended higher. At the aircrew/physical environment levels, HFACS revealed decision (improper choices), skill-based (stick and rudder) and perceptual (night, instrument conditions) errors contributing to > 60% of fatal accidents involving low performance airplanes. At the organizational level, failing to correct problems, time pressures, and incentive systems contributed to 16% of fatal mishaps. Safety deficits remain for the low performance category air taxi fleet warranting increased pilot instrument flight training/utilization of the mandatory 3-axis autopilot in degraded visibility. Safety culture improvements to address issues of personnel/equipment/training deficiencies, failing to correct problems, and time pressures/a safety-compromising incentive system all need to be addressed.
空中出租车从事不定期运输，使用各种性能类别（以下分别简称低、中、高性能）的飞机。目前尚无研究针对特定性能类别来探讨固定翼空中出租车的安全性。本研究通过性能类别比较了按性能类别分组的空中出租车飞机机队的事故率/乘客受伤率，并确定了该类别事故率最高的飞机事故中的人为因素。美国的事故（2004-2018 年）是从国家运输安全委员会数据库中确定的。通用航空/第 135 部分活动调查提供了年度机队时间。致命事故的促成因素是根据人为因素分类系统（HFACS）确定的。统计数据利用泊松分布、卡方/费舍尔和曼-惠特尼检验。共确定了 269 起空中出租车事故（53 起致命）。在过去的 15 年中，事故率（所有类别为 1.10/百万飞行小时）下降了 50%，这主要是由于中/高性能类别的飞机坠毁减少所致。然而，低性能飞机（1.5/百万飞行小时）的时间变化很小，受伤严重程度呈上升趋势。在机组人员/物理环境层面，HFACS 揭示了决策（不当选择）、技能（操纵杆和方向舵）和感知（夜间、仪器条件）错误导致了 60%以上涉及低性能飞机的致命事故。在组织层面，未能纠正问题、时间压力和激励系统导致了 16%的致命事故。低性能类别的空中出租车机队仍存在安全缺陷，需要增加飞行员仪表飞行训练/在视程不佳的情况下使用强制性三轴自动驾驶仪。需要改进安全文化，以解决人员/设备/培训缺陷、未能纠正问题、时间压力/危及安全的激励系统等问题。
