Added accidents 12/29/2013

It is always amazing to me how the NTSB really has zero standard for tracking jump plane accidents.  A search on key words is necessary to attempt to come up with a list.  Even in the 2008 NTSB Special Investigative Report (SIR) on skydiving their own people did not come up with a complete list (allow me to pat myself on the back).  I have literally spent thousands of hours since 2000 scouring the NTSB website for accident reports.  And yet, as complete as my list is I still find some reports that haven’t been included on DiverDriver.com.

So here it is.  The terms I search on in case anyone wanted to reproduce, verify or scrutinize the list I have created.  Go to the NTSB website and search on these terms: “parachute*” or “skydive*” or “jump*” or “air drop” or “airdrop” or “sky*div*”.  The “*” is a wild card character.  The site searches the synopsis and main body of any report in the date range specified.  Leave the date range blank to search back to 1982.  The final term “sky*div*” is what produced the latest group of missing reports.

I really have pulled my hair out some times with how the NTSB can use such a wide variety of terms to describe sky diving.  After my latest efforts I have found reports for years I thought were amazingly low in number of jump plane accidents.  My hunch was right and the reports were there.  I just hadn’t found them yet.

If you are looking for a particular accident and it does not appear in my list do NOT assume there is no report.  Send me a message and I would be happy to do a search with your help.  Maybe there is a report and I would be very happy to add it to my list.  Here are five accidents I just added.

1. King Air 90 Non-Fatal DeKalb, IL March 2, 2010
2. C-182 Fatal (1) Poestenkill, NY July 26, 1987
3. C-182 Non-Fatal McKinney, TX November 3, 1984
4. PA-32 Non-Fatal Ogden, UT August 4, 1984
5. C-185 Non-Fatal Mound Valley, KS July 4, 1983

Blue skies and safe loads.
DD.com