The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued five new Safety Alerts last week that provide general aviation (GA) pilots with mitigating strategies for preventing the most frequent types of accidents.

“Knowing these accidents, which sometimes include entire families, can be prevented is why ‘General Aviation Safety’ is on our Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. “At a time when many people are putting together their list of resolutions for the coming year, these five Safety Alerts remind pilots, mechanics and passengers of basic safety precautions to add to their checklists to ensure a safe flight for all on board.”

A Safety Alert is a brief information sheet that pinpoints a particular safety hazard and offers practical remedies to address the issue.

The five Safety Alerts are:

• Check Your Restraints
• Engine Power Loss Due to Carburetor Icing
• “Armed” for Safety: Emergency Locator Transmitters
• All Secure, All Clear (securing items in the aircraft cabin)
• Proper Use of Fiber or Nylon Self-Locking Nuts

The NTSB is charged with investigating about 1,500 aviation accidents annually. Each year, about 475 pilots and passengers are killed and hundreds more are seriously injured in GA accidents in the United States. (http://go.usa.gov/28DF)

The five GA Safety Alerts released, as well as the 25 others issued since 2004 (including five video Safety Alerts), are available at http://go.usa.gov/2BeA.