In the past 100 years nobody has created a new way to destroy an airplane. Here are the most common ways, roughly in order of most common first:
- Weather: pilot didn’t respect Mother Nature (she doesn’t have to respect you – she was here first).
- Fuel: pilot ran out of fuel (airplane engines run better with fuel).
- Planning: or lack thereof – over gross weight, out of CG limits, density altitude, VFR into IMC, etc.
- Maintenance: pilot departed with known aircraft deficiency (airplanes work best when properly maintained).
- Pilot was cognitively impaired (fatigue, drugs, etc.).
- Stupidity: pilot intentionally did something stupid (buzzing, “watch this”, etc.).
Nearly every aviation accident falls into at least one of these categories – sometimes more than one – they cover more than 90% of accidents. The good news is, improving safety is simple common sense. Don’t do these things! Safety improves one pilot at a time. If you don’t do these things, you’ve improved your safety more than 10-fold. That means you’re making GA safer than driving or bicycling.
Put differently: airplanes are very strong and reliable. They don’t fail often, and even when rare failures do happen, most can be handled with a safe outcome if the pilot is proficient and current.
Notes:
- GA: General Aviation
- CG: Center of Gravity
- VFR: Visual Flight Rules
- IMC: Instrument Meteorological Conditions (clouds, smoke, etc.)