There is very little data available on the subject, largely because
there are so few women who are pilots (about 6% of all pilots, a lower
proportion than that of professional pilots). In WWII, the WASPs had
an accident rate that was virtually identical to their male
counterparts, ferry command in the RAF had women and men flying
precisely the same airplanes (Tiger Moths through Spitfires, Typhoons
and Lancasters..and all British bombers were single pilot) in
precisely the same conditions on delivery flights and the data there
is inconsistent, some shows that the accident rate was a dead heat
other shows the males had a massively higher accident rate (I suspect
it differs in all acidents versus fatal accidents as virtually the
same proportion of men and women RAF ferry pilots were killed). A
look at NTSB reports about ten years ago had female pilots with a
notably lower accident rate than males.

Overall, there just isn't a great deal of information available,
although informal comments indicate that men are more prone to
weather-related accidents due to "macho" attitudes adversely affecting
judgment and may be more likely to commit suicide using an aircraft.
The Beech commuter accident you related, with a female captain, was so
far out of c.g. aft and had a pitch control malfunction, so the sex of
the members of the flight crew was irrelevant. You might check on the
737 at Springs, but it doesn't appear that one would matter as the
causes hypothesized are rotor cloud induced severe turbulence or
rudder hard over, neither of which the crew could have handled, no
matter how super human they were. As you said, the Valujet crash could
not have been saved by the flight crew unless they were psychic and
aborted the flight almost immediately after takeoff (maybe we should
screen for that talent g).

Once it's all sorted out, I suspect that the stats will probably match
that of cars, with women being better drivers/pilots than men, when
one looks at the likelihood of an accident. Women seem to exercise
better judgment than men, being more willing to decide to reroute or
cancel a flight, which, in the end, seems to be the variable that
bites most pilots.

Beyond that, it's an interesting question, women's bodies are more
efficient than men, they can withstand higher g's before
graying/blacking out and can go to higher altitudes without
oxygen...which makes one wonder why we have men flying fighters at all
g.

It is an interesting question, and probably one that can never be
answered. It seems to me that we should look solely at the judgment
and skill of each individual pilot.

All the best,
Rick

(NoPoliticsHere) wrote in message . com...
I haven't seen any stats on this, but it seems to me that, just
maybe, there could be a much higher rate of crashes when there
are ladies in the cockpit. Maybe this is not the case, and I'm sure
the more PC gents here will be quick to jump on me for even suggesting
it, but during the past, I have noticed more than a few female names
mentioned in news reports about aircraft crashes (with them being one
of the pilots, or the only pilot). Just how many female professional
pilots are there? Aren't they involved in a disproportionately large
number of accidents? Drawing from memory, here are a few:

The accident yesterday that killed 10 with the NASCAR racing team
had a pilot named Liz (haven't met too many guys named Liz).
(Probably pilot error--reasonable guess--because the plane slammed
into Bull Mt. in foggy conditions.)

The commuter crash last week (Indiana?) had a pilot named Kim.

The commuter crash last year (plan overloaded) in Charlotte had
a female captain.

ValuJet crash in Everglades (in '96 I think) had a female captain.
(of course, this one could have gone down regardless of pilot skill,
but airliners *have* landed while blazing with flames (Ex: Air Canada
in Cincinatti I think).

The 1991 Colorado Springs 737 crash had a female in the cockpit.

A small cargo plane that landed here in town on a freeway (not on the
median, but ONTO rush hour traffic, making a firball out of a van,
killing the driver--female pilot survived) a few years ago had a lone
female pilot.

A fatal crash involving a Navy fighter (probably F-14) off a
carrier some time back had a female pilot (just how many female
F-14 pilots are there?)

See what I mean?

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