Safety Standards on Small Passenger Aircraft--With Nine or Fewer Seats--Are Significantly Less Stringent Than on Larger Aircraft

GAO reported on how current federal airworthiness standards and operating rules influence the safety of small aircraft.

The Airline Deregulation Act provides that, to the maximum extent feasible, air carrier passengers are to receive the same level of safety regardless of the size of the air carrier. However, GAO found that passengers flying on small aircraft are not provided with the same level of safety as passengers flying on larger aircraft. Both the airworthiness standards and the operating rules which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established for small aircraft are significantly less stringent than those it has established for larger aircraft. Since the late 1960's, FAA has studied, proposed, or made numerous changes to the airworthiness standards and operating rules. GAO found that these studies and changes either excluded or were not considered mandatory for aircraft with fewer than 10 seats because of the economic impact which such standards would have on the small aircraft industry. Some changes could be made at acceptable costs with substantial safety benefits to be gained; however, FAA has not prepared any cost/benefit analysis with regard to modifying the safety standards which apply to small aircraft.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Oliver W. Krueger Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 275-6111