Is there an increased number of plane crashes now a days?

[HatTrickHero11]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people. Is it because the planes are unreliable? Or because the weather? Or that they pilots are doing stuff out of their league or jurisdiction? I know there is a statistic out there showing that airplanes are safer than cars but whats the deal here?

 

[wabower]

Not to worry, they're just trying to get out of doing their Christmas shopping. The rate will drop sharply after New Year's day.

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people. Is it because the planes are unreliable? Or because the weather? Or that they pilots are doing stuff out of their league or jurisdiction? I know there is a statistic out there showing that airplanes are safer than cars but whats the deal hear?

 

[airguy]

Yup.

The weather gods have become angry at us for being able to semi-accurately forecast what is going to happen over the next day or two. In retaliation, and to put us mere mortal pilots back in our proper place, they are smiting aircraft from the skies in all-out warfare against flying machines. All aircraft around the world are in danger.

Well, it's either that, or it's a statistical blip and the blood-thirsty media is capitalizing on it. You figure out which one is more likely. I'm going flying.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/nall.html

 

[Dan Thomas]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people. Is it because the planes are unreliable? Or because the weather? Or that they pilots are doing stuff out of their league or jurisdiction? I know there is a statistic out there showing that airplanes are safer than cars but whats the deal here?

Small airplanes aren't safer than cars. I can't remember current figures but it used to be about four times as dangerous as a car to be in a small aircraft with a private pilot, per hour in the vehicle. With a commercial pilot in a small aircraft, it was about the same risk as a car. In an airliner, it's about 11 times safer than car travel.

One fatal crash per week isn't many, and there are plenty of small airplanes out there. There are many times more people killed in cars. Many, many times more. So many that it's old news and you can come across a fatal accident on the highway and never read about it in the media.

Dan

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people. Is it because the planes are unreliable? Or because the weather? Or that they pilots are doing stuff out of their league or jurisdiction? I know there is a statistic out there showing that airplanes are safer than cars but whats the deal here?

400 people killed in airplanes last year, about
40,000 killed on the highways.

At some point you have to wonder if throwing restriction and regulation at a this problem of a small number of deaths is worthwhile. The ignored downside is that the only remaining way to stop all deaths is to prohibit the activity completely.

 

[poadeleted20]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people.

"Seems, madam? I know not seems." I know of no statistic which suggets the number of GA accidents is up. On the contrary, every statistic I've seen from the FAA says they're down, both in rate per flying hour and total numbers.

Is it because the planes are unreliable?

Again, on the contrary, all the accident statistics suggest that accidents due to mechanical/material failure are decreasing progressively.

Or because the weather?

The weather hasn't changed much over the last hundred years. Again, if anything, the number of weather-related accidents is down, probably due to improved weather reporting/forecasting technologies, better weather information distribution systems, improved aircraft capabilities, and pilot education.

Or that they pilots are doing stuff out of their league or jurisdiction?

The biggest cause of light aircraft accidents is pilot error, in the form of either bad decision-making or weak piloting skills ("stick-and-rudder" skills).

I know there is a statistic out there showing that airplanes are safer than cars

A bit misleading. Air carrier safety is much better than road vehicles, and professionally flown aircraft (business and commercial) are not far behind air carriers, but accident rates for nonprofessionally-flown light planes are about the same as motorcycles, and worse than private autos.

but whats the deal here?

Can't say -- where did you get the idea that aircraft accidents are up?

 

[fgcason]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people.

Right now I am half a mile from a fire station on the west side of Denver. The sirens were screaming their brains out about once every other hour for 3 days straight over the thanksgiving weekend. Several times they pulled in just long enough to reload supplies and were rolling again. In the last 48 hours, they were rolling out about every 2-3 hours. That works out to more car rescue missions in 5 days than plane crashes per year - and that's just for that one dinky little fire station in a low risk area. The day I drove somewhere I saw 6 smashbangers in 20 miles of driving - and half of those were, um, really bad. Which is more dangerous?

whats the deal here?

The ground remains hard and totally unforgiving if you run into it.

Flying is safe. Crashing is dangerous. Don't crash.

 

[Palmpilot]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people.

There is nearly one fatal GA accident per day in the U.S.*, and my recollection is that it has been that way in the entire twenty years I have been a pilot.

*For example, the Nall Report shows 282 in 2008.

 

[brcase]

<snip>

One fatal crash per week isn't many, and there are plenty of small airplanes out there. There are many times more people killed in cars. Many, many times more. So many that it's old news and you can come across a fatal accident on the highway and never read about it in the media.

Dan

+1
I used to teach a ground school with an instructor that always brought a copy of our local newspaper the class that had the airplane hanging in the power lines in a large photo on the front Page.

http://www.ladder54.com/Photosplane.htm

In this accident no one was hurt and it was about 500 miles away from us. In the same issue on page 4 or 5 with no photos was a local accident on the freeway where at least two people were killed and several other injured.

Car wrecks are just rarely newsworthy anymore.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

 

[wabower]

What is the ratio of number of cars to number of airplanes?

. There are many times more people killed in cars. Many, many times more. So many that it's old news and you can come across a fatal accident on the highway and never read about it in the media.

Dan

 

[fgcason]

What is the ratio of number of cars to number of airplanes?

It's really about the media hype involved. There can be a slaughterfest on the road and the news media vehicles will drive on the grass around it to get to the airport and freak out at a total non event flat tire landing.
Nasty car wrecks are like stepping on ants. A minor plane incident is treated as the end of civilization.

 

[bbchien]

Everything said here is true. But you have to admit, the this attachment is pretty depressing.

 

[wabower]

If you were the producer of the TV evening news, which event would you cover?

It's really about the media hype involved. There can be a slaughterfest on the road and the news media vehicles will drive on the grass around it to get to the airport and freak out at a total non event flat tire landing.
Nasty car wrecks are like stepping on ants. A minor plane incident is treated as the end of civilization.

 

[RyanShort1]

I think a lot of it has to do with the new technology we have all become accustomed to. We are now more aware of the accidents that are happening in nearly real-time. Ten (well maybe fifteen) years ago, I would not have known about, been concerned about, or even given thought to how many crashes were occurring say in California, or South Dakota, or Colorado unless they were of major proportions. I did know about a handful of local crashes, but that was it. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that we are now more aware of the issues, but it really isn't "normal" in the historical sense for us to be so very aware of everything going on 1000 miles away.

Ryan

 

[4CornerFlyer]

It seems like every week there is at least 1 small aircraft that crashes that kills several people. /QUOTE]

The plural of anecdote is not data. Small planes have been falling out of the sky forever, according to the media. When did you start oaying attention?

Jon

 

[HatTrickHero11]

I started to pay attention just recently, when I found out that flying an airplane is right there in my grasp

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

I started to pay attention just recently, when I found out that flying an airplane is right there in my grasp

Read the Nall report, then you will know what not to do.

 

[wabower]

Even better if you learn what not to do and then don't do it.

Read the Nall report, then you will know what not to do.

 

[DavidWhite]

I'd venture to guess that a thorough preflight and call to wxbrief or duats briefing would prevent most accidents.

 

[HatTrickHero11]

Thanks for all the responses! It clears things up with what real pilots think of the matter

 

[wabower]

With respect to the media's interest in plane crashes vs other wrecks, this morning's browser list of bullet-point topics inlcuded "plane crashes into school." So I took the bait hit the button to see what havoc GA had wreaked upon the unsuspecting populace, only to find that the crash that claimed 3 lives occurred in the Phillipines.

Doesn't that tell us everything we need to know about media mentality regarding airplane crashes, and maybe our own as well?

 

[silver-eagle]

Automobiles crash. Since we were little, we knew this and have become desensitized to them. Unless there is something startling about the accident, the news hardly ever covers it. Plane crashes are usually front page news since so few people know jack about planes. The news outlets do their best to sensationalize them and keep them up front in the news for days.
It sells.
There are other reasons. Pilots are flying less, training less, relying on tech more, flying beyond their capabilities, flying distracted. Then again, these are the same reasons car crashes.
You only know about accidents because the media reports it. Airplane accidents get the sensational attention. Your average fender bender only attracts the accident chasing lawyers.

 

[onwards]

Thanks for all the responses! It clears things up with what real pilots think of the matter

Well, I don't know what real pilots think... but the proliferation of news sources starving for attention and the existence of aggregators (think Google news) makes it impossible to avoid expanded sensationalist coverage.

 

[TommyG]

NTSB - http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/month.aspx

Always a great source of information

Really nothing more extreme in the amount of accidents today as compared to the previous years.

But to compare the amount of GA place accidents to auto accidents is a far stretch. There are millions of cars on the road every single day. I would give a guess and say there are only a few thousand GA planes up each day.