Jonathan Goodish wrote in
:

In article ,
ET wrote:
That just makes too much sense... In a car, you have at least as much
chance of dying as the result of someone ELSES stupidity as your own,
while in an aircraft the vast majority of possible fatal incidents
are under your direct control as the Pilot....

I can only think of a few instances where someone elses stupidity
comes into play... mid air (contributory), runway incursion,.... of
course a mechanic who screws something up that is not visible on
inspection......

There is risk in everything that we do. Driving in a car, even with a
competent driver, has to be riskier than flying in a well-maintained
single engine airplane with a competent and proficient pilot.

Unfortunately, it seems to be very difficult to assess the competency
and proficiency of a dead pilot after the accident. The only
statistics I've ever seen appear to lump all pilots together, with
some exceptions for data on certificates and ratings, which still
don't do much to assess the pilot's skill or judgment. Human beings
in the pilot community often try to deflect attention away from the
dead pilot by calling the that person a "great pilot" or "very
experienced," which doesn't help if the pilot wasn't faithful to those
traits. While most accidents appear to point to pilot error, there
are some very good pilots who just happen to draw the short straw that
day. However, the same observation is possible with virtually any
activity.

I can't drive 1 mile down the road without having someone cut me off,
slam on their brakes and turn without signaling, cross the center line
into my lane, etc. I don't have any of those concerns in flight. I'm
sorry, but I simply can't believe that I'm safer on the road than in
flight, based on my own first-hand experience.

I haven't been following this thread, so I'm not sure what the latest
is on the accident that started this thread. Based on what I've read,
though, it sounds like a botched landing and an incorrect or unlucky
recovery. If that's the case, the cause will likely point to pilot
error that could have been prevented by better skill, judgment, or
both.



JKG

I agree with you...

FYI the start of this thread was the death of 2 Young Eagles and the
pilot. On a go-around apparently, for yet unknown reasons, the plane was
unable to gain altitude and crashed after clipping some trees. NTSB
report is not yet up, but here is the link from the original post:

http://www.komonews.com/stories/39753.htm

--
-- ET :-)

"A common mistake people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools."---- Douglas Adams