Private Jet Safety: What You Need to Know

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, are legendary for creating the first successful powered airplane, achieving their first flight in 1903. Only a few years later, Orville became notable for a much less happy reason – involvement in the first known airplane crash to cause a fatality (of his passenger), in 1908. The accident caused the U.S. War Department to delay the delivery of a Wright Brothers aircraft for several months.

Photo Credit: Supersmario, iStock / Getty Images Plus

More than a century later, safety is still a concern for air travelers. Commercial airlines are demonstrably the safest way to travel using powered transportation. When ranking major options, private jet travel comes in the middle of the pack for the “death index” – your risk when flying a non-scheduled charter flight is about 60 times that of flying on a commercial jet.

Obviously, safety concerns have not stopped the air charter industry in the U.S. from growth, especially over the last five years – flying private is vastly safer than driving or riding in a car (which is a tad more than 450 times riskier than commercial air travel). That having been said, everyone has heard of at least a few memorable charter aviation tragedies – one of the most iconic U.S. rock songs, “American Pie,” focuses on the 1959 plane crash involving Buddy Holly and other rock and roll stars, aka “the day the music died.”

Those considering private jet travel may not be able to remember all of the eight-plus minutes of lyrics of Don McLean’s classic tune, but they are likely to wonder about the safety of the metal tube they’re looking to travel on through the clouds. In the U.S., that often means asking about ratings from safety organizations overseeing charter operators. If you’d like to know exactly what safety culture means in private jet travel, read on.

There We Were, All in One Place

Air travel is heavily regulated around the world. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), part of the United Nations, adopts standards and recommended practices for air travel. Each country typically has its own aviation regulatory body, such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S., and certain regions also have larger overseers, including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The U.S., however, offers very distinctive challenges for aviation regulators. With a population of a little over 600 million people, North America represents about three-quarters of all business jet flights in the world – and though Mexico and Canada play their part, the U.S. is the primary driver. (The second most active market, Europe, accounts for about 15 percent of all departures across a population of close to 750 million.) While individual charter is a robust driver of demand, the term “business jet” originated from the fact that private jet travel in the U.S. was originally driven by corporate travel – which incorporated corporate risk management.

PHOTO CREDIT: yoh4nn, iStock / Getty Images Plus

“In Europe, we trust our various authorities in how they go about overseeing the quality of public transport operators,” says Paul Travis, client services manager for Alto Aerospace Ltd,. “The litigious nature of U.S. society, on the other hand, encouraged corporate flight departments to seek an additional layer of comfort.”

That additional layer has evolved into independent, non-governmental safety organizations that assess safety for charter operators. Two of the most well-known are ARGUS International, which offers ratings ranging from Gold to Platinum, and WYVERN Ltd., known for its Wingman Certification program.

The nonprofit Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) works with the FAA to help charter operators with non-punitive safety reporting and set industry-wide safety standards, while the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) promotes the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO), a voluntary code of best practices for flight departments.

Helter Skelter, in a Summer Swelter

Another distinctive factor in the U.S. is that the FAA has different levels of regulations for different types of flights. Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations governs “Aeronautics and Space.” It is divided into numbered parts, each referring to a specific topic – and there are multiple parts for the aviation industry. Part 91 has general operating and flight rules (private, personal or corporate flights), Part 121 applies to scheduled airlines, and Part 135 covers on-demand charter and commuter flights.

“EASA holds air charter operators to more stringent standards than the FAA,” says Sonnie Bates, CEO of WYVERN Ltd. “Air charter operators in Europe are required to implement essentially the same rules as the larger airlines, except for some flexibility in flight-time limitations, whereas in the U.S., the air charter operators are more aligned with corporate aircraft operations under Part 91.”

The flexibility offered by the multi-tier regulatory system in the U.S. is likely an important factor in why the U.S. charter aviation market is as large and active as it is. The lighter the regulatory hand, the easier it is for new charter operators to enter the market. “The U.S. economy and commerce are so abundant, diverse and open versus the rest of the world,” Bates mentions. “It’s the largest, most robust charter aviation sector around the globe.”

However, while private jet travelers may appreciate that abundance and openness in theory, they prefer certainty when it comes to their well-being while hurtling through the skies. “Charter customers are a unique brand. They are very particular,” says Andrew Ladouceur, COO of Charter Jet One. “They want the best value and the most professional pilots, but safety is #1.”

Do You Recall, What Was Revealed…

As a result, many would-be private jet travelers – and thus the brokers looking to obtain aircraft in which they can travel – fall back onto trusted brand names. Both founded in the 1990s, ARGUS and WYVERN are known for their in-depth audits of charter operators and real-time reports on individual flights. They look into the performance history of pilots, aircraft and operators in general, digging through the data to seek out hidden problems or inconsistencies. Users range from charter brokers to government agencies to corporate flight departments. Just following the letter of the FAA law isn’t enough – for example, WYVERN requires two fully qualified ATP, type-rated and current pilots per flight to “PASS,” while the FAA may permit just one.

WYVERN’s Bates started his aviation career as a U.S. Air Force pilot for more than a decade before moving into the civilian side. The first corporate flight department he flew for didn’t have a safety program, so he decided to go where one was. Eventually, his focus on elevating safety practices led him to create the Safety Leader Training Course that came to WYVERN’s attention. WYVERN purchased the course, bringing Bates on board as CEO to shake things up.

“We went from our beginnings of just auditing air charter operators to offering training, coaching, consulting and software to the entire aerospace industry,” Bates recalls. “We implemented both the Safety Leader Training Course and the Flight Leader Program in 2018, which allows an operator to choose coaching vs auditing. When you’re meeting with the operator every 90 days, it really allows you to understand their culture.”

Bates emphasizes the need for having top leadership in aviation be committed to safety. In aviation, he says, safety isn’t a binary yes-or-no setup – it involves a more complex analysis of factors and priorities that result in risk-based options. For example, if inclement weather conditions threaten the safety of a specific mission, rather than just pressing on (GO) or canceling a flight (NO), the team will consider risk-based options to optimize success, with safety as a core value.

“Today, we talk about professionalism being essential to support a safety culture,” Bates muses. “Safety is behavior driven. Our quarterly monitoring and coaching program really does change behavior, and our awareness and knowledge of the industry is enhanced each time we engage with our clients.”

Over time, WYVERN’s customer base has grown and diversified. In addition to charter operators and corporate flight departments, clients include U.S. Department of Defense contractors, fixed-base operators, aircraft manufacturers, unmanned vehicles operated by power and energy companies, and much more. WYVERN consults with nuclear power generating entities and is working with startups developing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs).

Bates is expanding WYVERN’s reach even further into segments such as aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers. “EASA requirements are much more stringent for aircraft maintenance versus the FAA,” he points out. “The FAA allows U.S. MROs to hire people straight off the street and be trained as long as a person with a license is supervising them – which can be remote. That’s a risk factor that would benefit from more exploration and conversation.”

Maybe They’d Be Happy for a While

Charter aviation safety culture doesn’t stand still. WYVERN works with both the ACSF and the IBAC to ensure that safety approaches can evolve to meet new technologies and trends. WYVERN and ARGUS are opening offices or otherwise providing services on other continents, looking to expand their safety efforts into non-U.S. markets.

Unfortunately, would-be private jet travelers are not short of vivid reminders of the importance of aviation safety for smaller aircraft. With 2025 less than halfway over, the U.S. alone has seen the descent of a medical jet into a Philadelphia neighborhood, the crash of a small commuter plane involving 10 passengers in Alaska, and a near-miss between a private jet and a Southwest Airlines commercial jet at Chicago’s Midway Airport. Only the last incident occurred without fatalities – and all incidents happened before the winter was even over.

The collision of regional flight American Airlines 5342 with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, DC in January didn’t involve a charter flight, but grabbed national attention as a reminder that air travel can get very complicated very fast. While civil aviation accidents with fatalities have declined over the past quarter-century, private jet travelers do not want to be the exception that proves the rule.

“It’s rare now that I find a company that isn’t WYVERN or ARGUS rated,” says Wendi Matthews-Ortiz, VP of executive aviation for Hunt & Palmer USA. “The demand for safety validation has gone up since the pandemic – and just looking at what’s going on in the aviation world in 2025, there’s going to be a further boost.”