"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...
I can't remember where I read it, but I seem to recall that in the majority
of fatal accidents the pilot knew something was wrong with the airplane
before he even took off. It does seem like a popular trend reading through
the accident databases. But can anyone point me to a study that actually
supports this view?

Although in the majority of accidents the pilot knew something was
wrong, that does not mean that the majority of flights where the pilot
knew something was wrong necessarily resulted in an accident.