11 Fatal U.S. Airline Accidents in 1989

U.S. airlines had 11 fatal crashes last year, the most in a single year since 1968, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Wednesday.

In all, 278 people were killed in 1989 in flights involving scheduled and non-scheduled air carriers, down from the 285 in 1988, the board said. The most deadly year of the decade was 1985, when 526 people were killed in seven fatal commercial aviation accidents.

Also last year, 763 people died in accidents involving private or general aircraft, the safety board said, the lowest figure for that category since it began keeping statistics. There were 781 deaths involving general aviation accidents in 1988.

The board said the fatal accident rate for general or private aviation continued “an improving trend that lasted most of the decade.”

Despite the high number of airline accidents involving fatalities last year, the overall accident rate for commercial air carriers and commuters declined, the safety board reported.

There were 28 accidents involving U.S. scheduled and charter airlines last year, a decrease from the 32 accidents recorded in 1988. The 11 involving fatalities were the most since the 15 of 1968.

Accidents involving scheduled airlines took 131 lives last year, 111 of them when a United Airlines DC-10 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, on July 19. The safety board noted that a passenger who died 31 days after the accident was not registered in its statistics.