Alcohol and General Aviation Accidents.

l i t t l e i m p o r t a n c e or attention has been given to the role of alcohol in civil general aviation accidents. Its significance has never been determined. This is evidenced, for ex­ ample, by most recent authoritative accident statistical reports (2, 3 ). In these statistical reviews, covering 929 general aviation fatal accidents which occurred in the years 1960 and 1961, only eight cases were identified under the pilot causal factor heading “O per­ ating U nder the Influence of Intoxicants,” and only 31 cases were identified under the heading “Related Factors.” Thus, alcohol has been identified in only 4% of all the general aviation fatal accidents for this twoyear period. This paper represents a study of 158 gen­ eral aviation fatal accidents in which toxicological examinations were performed on the pilots. These 158 cases were part of the total of 477 general aviation fatal accidents which killed 899 people in the year 1963. Thus the study covers over one third of the general aviation fatal accidents which occurred in 1963. In this paper the term general aviation means civil private, business, corporate, and commercial flying, excluding all air carrier operations, both scheduled and nonscheduled, and excluding m ilitary aviation. In each of these 158 cases bloodan d /o r tissue-alcohol determinations were performed on the pilots. Reliable laboratories were utilized, including university medical school laboratories, state crime and police labora­ tories, the laboratories of the A .F.I.P., and private licensed medical laboratories. The laboratory results were carefully reviewed for the possibility of errors from contam ina­ tion, putrefaction, and laboratory error. (7 ,8 ,9). Four doubtful cases were eliminated from the study. Ten cases in which al­ coholism was strongly established by history, but not verified by laboratory determinations, were eliminated.