“Accidents Up and Fatalities Down” reports The Airline Hub via Yahoo News.

Accidents in the United States involving commercial airlines and private aircraft rose last year, but fatalities declined, according to safety figures released on Friday.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating transportation accidents, said in its annual review that civil aviation accidents rose to 1,779 last year from 1,717 in 2004…Fatalities fell to 600 last year from 636 in 2004.

Virtually all of the accidents and deaths occurred in general aviation crashes, those involving small planes. The fatal accident rate and the fatality rate both increased for that group of aircraft.