On 02/06/06 11:54, Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Mark Hansen wrote:
Perhaps, but I suspect that it's reluctance to admit that many GA pilots
aren't as proficient or don't possess the best judgment--and therefore
are not as safe--as we'd like to believe.


JKG

Don't discount the propensity of the media these days to want to
sensationalize news stories. A crash of an airplane by an excellent
pilot is a much bigger story than the crash of an airplane by a
bad pilot. It seems they want to 'prove' that flying is unsafe, and
showing that even the best pilots crash seems to meet that end.

It seems to me that most of the crashes that make the news do not
involve "excellent" pilots--they involve pilots who exercised extremely
poor judgment (usually historically), were operating contrary to
regulation, or were not proficient or qualified for the operation being
conducted. I would agree that the media usually doesn't make these
points clear, or else there would no sensational story. The media would
prefer to encourage the perception that the pilots were excellent and
qualified pilots, with the concluding perception that GA is therefore
unsafe.

That was exactly the point I tried to make. I guess I didn't
do it very well ;-(


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA