The stats were published for quite a few years in the 3 yearly safety reviews that CAA used to publish before they abolished their tiny but very useful statistics section to save money.
CAP 780 published in 2008 (
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP780.pdf)
In the period 1998-2007, there were 25 reportable accidents involving UK-registered
gyroplanes, of which eight were fatal, resulting
in nine fatalities. During the same period, there
were 320 reportable accidents involving UK-regis
tered microlights, 23 of which were fatal,
resulting in 31 fatalities. However, the fatal ac
cident rate per million hours for gyroplanes in the
period 1998-2007 was some 18 times greater
than the combined average for airships,
balloons, gliders and microlights.
The number of reportable accidents involvi
ng gyroplanes has decreased from 31 between
1995 and 2004, to 25 between 1998 and 2007. The number of fatal accidents in the two
periods is the same (eight). The three-year moving average reportable accident rate in the
period ending 2004 was 1,785.2 per million hours, however this had reduced to 645.8 per
million hours by the period ending 2007. The thr
ee-year moving average fatal accident rate has
also reduced, from 595.1 per million hours in the period ending 2004, to 161.5 in the period
ending 2007.
There were 251 reportable accidents involv
ing microlights between 1995 and 2004, compared
to 320 between 1998 and 2007. The number of fata
l accidents involving microlights in the two
time periods was the same (23). The three-year
moving average reportable accident rate in the
period ending 2004 was 285.5 per million hours, compared to 368.1 per million hours in the
period ending 2007. The corresponding three-year
moving average fatal accidents rates were
20.2 per million hours and 25.3 per million hours respectively.
So at last count, microlights were running at 1 fatal per 40,000hrs, gyros at 1 per 6,000.
G