Interaction of Weather and Other Contributing Factors in General Aviation Instrument Approach Accidents

Abstract

General aviation accidents continue to be a concern for the Federal Aviation Administration. The purpose of this study was to identify the primary and secondary contributing factors of general aviation instrument approach accidents between the years of 2004-2014; identify the weather conditions of these accidents; and test for an association between the contributing factors and weather conditions during the accidents. Findings suggested that ‘Failure to Control’ and ‘Adverse Weather’ were identified as the leading causes of accidents during instrument flight rules operations while ‘Failure to Control’ and ‘Flight Below Published Minimums’ were the leading causes of accidents during visual flight rules. A Chi-square test of the data indicated a significant association between weather conditions and reported contributing factors with a moderate level of strength.