Former Microsoft/Apple Exec was pilot in that CT plane crash

[Lemon Drop]

No, general aviation is not safer than driving. It's 5-16 times more dangerous, depending on whose stats you use. But it's definitely not safer.
People who pilot their own planes aren't doing it because it's "safer," but all the other reasons you list testcase are certainly good reasons to pilot your own plane if you have the time, money and training.

[Lemon Drop]

more about pilot Bill Henningsgaard, he was named a "2013 Superhero for Washington Families"

http://www.svpseattle.org/blog/the-chang...n-families

[jdc]

Tragedy for sure, for both families.

"general aviation" is more dangerous -- if you base it on percentages only.

Going from memory -- Im pretty sure 30000+ people were killed in car accidents over the last few years, which if I remember right is down from the 50,000 about 25 years ago. That might be a small number compared to how many people are actually driving, but thats a big number. I think its like 1% of all cars on the road?

IF there were only 10000 small airplanes in the sky and if 100 people die = 1% too.

[Lemon Drop]

Andrew Stagg, Commercial Pilot

GA safety has been steadily improving, but it still has a long way to go...

Looking at NTSB (http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/Sta...) and NHTSA (http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Ma...) accident data involving fatalities in 2008, there were 0.010 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours for commercial airlines (Part 121 operators). In contrast, there were 1.21 fatalities per 100,000 flight hours for private aircraft (Part 91 operators).

To compare this with driving, in 2008, the NHTSA reported 1.26 fatalities per 100 million miles travelled. Since the risk factor relates more to the time spent in the vehicle, than distance travelled, we can equate that to about 2 million hours (estimating an average speed of 50mph). This gives us 0.063 fatalities per 100,000 driving hours.

So, to summarize these statistics, driving has a fatality rate about 6 times greater than that of commercial airlines and private aircraft have a fatality rate about 19 times greater than driving.

[Bill in NC]

The danger with small private aircraft is that the (usually wealthy) owner/pilot treats it like another one of their toys and doesn't put in the flight hours needed to become experienced.

[Black]

jdc wrote:
Tragedy for sure, for both families.

"general aviation" is more dangerous -- if you base it on percentages only.

Going from memory -- Im pretty sure 30000+ people were killed in car accidents over the last few years, which if I remember right is down from the 50,000 about 25 years ago. That might be a small number compared to how many people are actually driving, but thats a big number. I think its like 1% of all cars on the road?

IF there were only 10000 small airplanes in the sky and if 100 people die = 1% too.

Automotive fatalities in the U.S. have dropped from the low 40k's annually to the mid 30k's since the recession hit. Just under 100 a day, currently.

[BobC]

Yeah, it's gonna be *great* when we have flying cars and people can be idiots in every vector of 3 dimensions instead of just in a few of 2.