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:

1. Weather: pilot didn’t respect Mother Nature (she doesn’t have to respect you – she was here first).
2. Fuel: pilot ran out of fuel (airplane engines run better with fuel).
3. Planning: or lack thereof – over gross weight, out of CG limits, density altitude, VFR into IMC, etc.
4. Maintenance: pilot departed with known aircraft deficiency (airplanes work best when properly maintained).
5. Pilot was cognitively impaired (fatigue, drugs, etc.).
6. Stupidity: pilot intentionally did something stupid (buzzing, “watch this”, etc.).

Every aviation accident I know of falls into at least one of these categories – sometimes more than one. 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 roughly 10-fold and you’re making GA safer than driving or bicycling.