# When Maritime Meets Aviation: The Safety of Seaplanes on the Water
## 3 Results
### Analysis of Previous Accidents and Incidents
#### 3.1.2 Trend Analysis  
The dataset of seaplane occurrences was analyzed around the following variables:  
* Year;
* Landing gear;
* Phase of flight;
* Aircraft damage level;
* Injuries and fatalities. In Canada, the number of seaplane occurrences has gradually decreased over the years (Figure 3). However, considering private recreational seaplane operations on the water in particular, the number of occurrences is showing an increase over the years (Figure 4). This indicates that, while general seaplane safety may be improving, especially in the commercial world, there are unique challenges and risks associated with recreational, on-water seaplane operations that need to be addressed. This subset of data is used for the subsequent analysis in this article. It should also be noted that COVID-19 restrictions impacted the number of flights in 2020-2021. The accurate calculation of occurrence rates for seaplanes presented a significant challenge due to the deficiency of data on seaplane movements, or on the yearly number of hours flown by seaplane pilots. This issue is particularly relevant in the context of recreational seaplanes in Canada, where specific data are not available. One of the primary issues highlighted by [PERSON] [17] is the lack of detailed data on the seaplane fleet and the cadre of seaplane pilots in the US, which makes it difficult to calculate accurate accident/incident  
Figure 4: Distribution of the yearly number of seaplane occurrences in Canada for private, recreational, on-water operations. Figure 3: Distribution of the yearly number of seaplane occurrences in Canada. rates because comprehensive records of flight hours, pilot experience, and operational contexts are often incomplete or unavailable. This is also the case for Canada. Figure 5 shows how the number of injuries and fatalities fluctuated over the period, with the trendline ascending for the number of injuries and constant for the number of fatalities. The probable impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the number of flights in 2020-2021 should be noted. Also, it was not possible to determine the number of injuries and fatalities between 1990 and 1992 for a large number of narratives, so these three years have been removed. The number of occurrences annually for recreational seaplane operations on water involving amateur-built aircraft shows an increasing trend over the period, as shown in Figure 6, with the first amateur-built occurrence in 1998. From 2003, the numbers stabilize around a consistent average, which can be attributed to improved safety and a more experienced and knowledgeable community, along with regulatory enhancements. However, in recent years, a considerable percentage of occurrences have involved amateur-built aircraft. This highlights the importance of maintaining improvements so that, in the future, amateur-built aircraft become safer, to ensure a decreasing trend in their occurrences. Exploring the relationship between different occurrence causes and the level of damage to the aircraft reveals whether there are significant differences in the degree of damage suffered by seaplanes under different causes, thereby providing information for safety management and flight operations. Figure 7 illustrates the severity of aircraft damage resulting from the occurrences, with 94.62% leading to substantial aircraft damage, while 3.44% resulted in the aircraft  
Figure 5: Numbers of injuries and fatalities per year, for private, recreational, on-water seaplane operations in Canada. Figure 6: Number of occurrences per year for private, recreational, on-water seaplane operations using amateur-built aircraft, in Canada. being destroyed. These figures show that, irrespective of the cause of occurrence, serious damage or even destruction of the seaplane is the likely result. The most notable trend is the fluctuation in the number of substantially damaged aircraft, which, in the past six years, while showing a gradual decline, nonetheless shows an increasing trendline over the period.