How Safe Is Flying?

Since the most popular aircraft for flight training is the Cessna 172, I am going to focus on that particular plane which is one of the safest GA planes to fly. Statistically, the fatality rate is about 0.56 fatal crashes per 100,000 flying hours. As a side note, the commercial flight accident rate is much lower at 0.006 accidents per 100,000 flight hours and the great majority of those accidents will not include any fatalities. So, although your odds in general aviation are still very good there is still more risk involved than hopping on a commercial flight.

It Is As Safe As You Make It

Statistics aside, I am a firm believer that you can greatly skew the odds in your favor by being a safe pilot who makes good decisions. I have studied many general aviation accidents and more often than not, pilot error is involved or at least is a contributing factor. Keep in mind, pilot error goes way beyond just flying the plane and extends to go/no-go decisions made on the ground and in the air. Often times GA accidents are a result of a pilot taking off into weather conditions that were marginal at best or cramming too many passengers into a light aircraft. These accidents are all very easily avoidable by checking your ego and good decision making.

You can further increase your odds of a safe flight by good flight planning, keeping your skills sharp and not taking on situations that beyond personal minimums.

Flying inherently carries risk. The only way to guarantee that you don’t have an accident is not to fly. However, for those of us who are willing to accept some risk there is a lot we can do to stack the deck in our favor.