Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

How Do GA Aircraft Crashes Impact You

Well, after two GA crashes in Switzerland in the last four days, I have to say that I start feeling uneasy. And it becomes more and more difficult to explain the odds and safety of GA flying to my friends and acquaintances. What is the effect on you?

4th Aug 2017: Crash of a Piper Archer II in the Alps: English, German
8th Aug 2017: Crash of a Piper Malibu in Lake Constance: English, German

Last Edited by Vladimir at 08 Aug 14:28
LSZH, LSZF, Switzerland

The effect on me is to read all the information I can gather about the incident such that if I came across the same situation, hopefully I won’t make the same mistake. I don’t feel uneasy about them because accidents unfortunately do happen – all we can do is attempt to learn from them and see that our preparation is more than sufficient to catch any ‘gotchas’ before they get us…..

On a personal level, I doubt either of those would affect me in a manner which would lead to me hanging up my headset because a) I’m not flying in the Alps and b) I wasn’t flying IFR in a Malibu. If it was a Cirrus which broke up and the parachute failed, maybe. However what did affect me once was seeing a family depart Koblenz airfield in a Robin only to hear later that they had been involved in a mid air collision north of Frankfurt. That caused me to go out and purchase a portable system to assist detect other aircraft and, irrespective of where I am, I’ll always ask for a traffic service……

….much to the chagrin of British pilots who deem asking for a traffic service whilst VFR is being “a bit of a wuss” and that a ’basic service" is all the service that a modern pilot needs……

Last Edited by Steve6443 at 08 Aug 15:14
EDL*, Germany

It’s a statistical issue. Everybody and his dog are flying in July and August. We more or less get this peak every year. Thousands of flights end uneventfully during this period.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Car crashes don’t affect my car driving despite me regularly getting to see (and treat) the victims up close as emergency physician.

GA crashes don’t affect me personally but make it more difficult to justify my hobby to friends and family. Thus a sound analysis of what happened and drawing the appropriate conclusions is important.

EDIT: As a very inexperienced pilot what affects me the most is fear of getting into potentially dangerous situations which I have not yet experienced and thus am uncertain of getting safely out of, such as a spin. GA crashes by similarly unexperienced or student pilots certainly get my special attention.

Last Edited by MedEwok at 08 Aug 15:29
Low-hours pilot
EDVM Hildesheim, Germany

Vladimir wrote:

Well, after two GA crashes in Switzerland in the last four days, I have to say that I start feeling uneasy. And it becomes more and more difficult to explain the odds and safety of GA flying to my friends and acquaintances. What is the effect on you?

To paraphrase Morpheus, do you really think that what happened in those cases really changes your chance of having an accident at all?

And to MedEwok, newly qualified pilots are very safe. Remember your training and don’t get overconfident after a couple hundred hours and you will be fine. There are very few situations leading to these sort of accidents that were not caused by the pilots themselves making mistakes. Things don’t “just happen”.

EGTK Oxford

The two are quite unrelated but both come very close to my heart.

The Malibu was my neighbour on the Tarmac at ZRH… i used to look at it thinking it would be nice to own one…

Not the first Malibu to come to grief like that.. i recall one near Geneva which also crashed during climb and loss of control.

EDIT: If my fears are true, then the PIC of this flight was a very experienced pilot and someone I have not met but know of in a very positive way. If that should be true, I have to say that Vladimir has more than a point to be concerned. Even if it was not the guy I think of, also the other co-owners are very experienced pilots.

The one in the mountains.. it was part of a youth camp organisation doing first flights for children. I was up there on thursday and know many of rhe camps crew… 35 years they have done this and now this.

Very inexplixable as the pilot was a local who has been flying up there for many years.

Yes it has an impact on me but more so at the people around me. With the press running amock here with these two accidents (some posts of which are very questionable such as relating the first to the 2nd because both are Piper airplanes) it starts to become really difficult to justify the risks which the public perceives as very severe in light GA. That a lot of other modes of transport are more dangerous is not relevant to them, because the papers only focus on airplane accidents. They don’t really care how many motorcycles, bicycles and cars crash, as that is a “normal” thing to happen. Me, if I see all the crosses and flowers on the side of our roads, I am more than wary of this perception. But it does not help if potential pax or even family start to be scared and will refuse to fly with me or even more.

Both accidents do not fit in the scheme of statistical probability, as neither was flown by a beginner or low time pilot, neither was flown by people who were new and did not know what they are doing or who keep their licenses alive by flying 3 days a year. The question to put forward then is, if it happens to them, when will it happen to me.

Last Edited by Mooney_Driver at 08 Aug 17:25
LSZH(work) LSZF (GA base), Switzerland

How Do GA Aircraft Crashes Impact You

Not at all I hope

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Vladimir wrote:

And it becomes more and more difficult to explain the odds and safety of GA flying to my friends and acquaintances.

Don’t ever try to do that, at least not with anyone you hope to fly with you. I wouldn’t suggest lying to someone, or refusing to give them proper information when requested, but don’t ever bring up the subject of accidents with your friends or family or discuss such accidents with them, if you can avoid it. They don’t have a sufficient reference point to be able to appreciate the risks, and they may not like putting their trust in you to avoid similar accidents.

Such discussions just result in people needlessly getting nervous and not wanting to fly.

Of course if someone really wants to discuss the risks before flying with you, then they deserve the proper information, but don’t ever bring the subject up voluntarily!

EIWT Weston, Ireland

I agree 100% with DP above, having been up that road myself and ending up with the result which is that Justine will now do only 1-2hr flights on very nice days.

On the main topic, I am not bothered by accidents and even started this thread which some weren’t too happy about… However what I do find upsetting is when somebody was really pointlessly careless and killed his family. One plane formerly in “my” hangar, N2195B, did exactly that, and it was completely avoidable if only he got tafs and metars and read them.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

I agree 100% with DP above, having been up that road myself and ending up with the result which is that Justine will now do only 1-2hr flights on very nice days.

What did happen Peter ?

64 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top