G.R. Patterson III wrote:


nrp wrote:

Why do so many crashed aircraft have (nearly) all the seats filled.


Because most of us buy the smallest aircraft that can reasonably do the job for
us?

Probably a contributing factor, but most airplanes I see arriving for
fuel, etc., typically have only the pilot and maybe one other person on
board. Yet, it does seem that there are disproportionately few
accidents involving only the pilot. Ron, here's another research
article for you to do for Kitplanes or whoever will publish it.

It may just be my imagination, but I tend to agree with the OP that at
least my perception is that more accidents involve a number of
passengers as compared to the number of flights that include a full
load. It does make one wonder of the extra pressure to complete the
flight that carrying passengers entails is playing a role. I don't know
if any of the safety stats have the data required to determine this, but
it is an interesting question.

Matt