Learjet crash exposes danger of flying private which is up to 80X more deadly than commercial airlines

Suddenly, that middle seat on a packed commercial flight might not look so bad.The Learjet crash that resulted in the deaths of nine people over the weekend has renewed concerns over the dangers of flying private — and federal statistics show it is about 80 times more deadly than traveling on a traditional airliner.Scheduled US air carriers notably saw zero deaths in 2024, the latest available data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) — while private charter flights saw 16 deaths that year.Deaths in 2026 are expected to be higher, given at least two high profile chartered plane crashes — one in January in Bangor, Maine, that killed six people and the crash in Florida on Sunday.When you compare the deaths on private flight to the statistically zero deaths across millions of passengers on commercial airlines, the difference begins to feel larger.Over the last decade, chartered flights were 80 times more deadly per 100,00 flight hours, the metric that federal aviation officials use to count the time planes are in the air.Flying with your family in your own small plane is even more dangerous.So-called “general aviation” crashes killed 300 people in 2024.That’s 500 times more deaths on a per-flight-mile basis.Chartered helicopters, meanwhile, saw 13 fatalities, according to the NTSB.Experts have said the disparity in fatalities and accidents lies in how safety varies widely among private charter operators as opposed to the uniform regulations imposed on commercial airlines.In the private industry, pilots aren’t required to have as much experience compared to airlines where pilots are typically required to complete at least 1,500 hours in the air.

For private charters, pilots are generally only required to have at least 500 hours under their belt, with co-pilots only needing half that time.There is also no age ceiling for chartered flight pilots as opposed to commercial airlines, where the Federal Aviation Administration has a mandatory re...