On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:48:31 +0100, Mxsmanic wrote:

From accident reports. When I compare GA reports to commercial
airliner reports, the prominence of engine problems as a contributing
factor in accidents is difficult to ignore.

Number of engines enters into it, too. When the vast majority of GA aircraft
have an engine failure, they're going down. Airliners have more than one engine
(by regulation) and mere engine failure only rarely results in an accident.
Thus, even if the powerplant reliability rates were the same, airliners would
have lower accident rates.

The other factor is that turbine powerplants are more reliable than recips.
Compare airline accident rates in the 50s vs. today. You don't have airliners
ditching because of a problem with one of their powerplants.

Ron Wanttaja