How Safe is Flying!? The Truth about General Aviation Safety 

"Airplanes cover ground much more quickly than cars" *cries in Cessna 150*

The part that everyone forgets is that you then need to get in a car after you get to your airport destination, there is no escaping!

I've always said it's roughly as safe per hour as riding a motorcycle (which is accurate), however, on a motorcycle, you have to worry more about someone ELSE killing you, while in a plane, you mostly just have to worry about yourself and making good decisions.

If you are going to eliminate certain causes of GA accidents, you need to do the same for autos. For example, what if you eliminated driving with a teenager, driving without a seatbelt, driving while intoxicated and driving after midnight? These are reasonable variables that can be controlled and I suspect are the cause of the majority of all fatal car accidents.

To be honest as much as I'd like to agree with the conclusion of this video, many of the estimations were highly questionable. Especially the last one, no one can perfectly predict the safety of the pilots they fly with. And pilot error is obviously the biggest factor affecting flight safety.

Having read so many articles and watched several videos like this, I think they completely miss the point. I don’t drive for the fun of it, at least not regularly. I drive because I have to get to work, or get to the store, or get to other places that I’m required to be. Driving is mandatory, and I rarely enjoy it. In contrast, I fly only for fun. I know it’s dangerous. We all know it’s dangerous. That’s why we spend so much time and effort learning and practicing what to do in emergencies. We do what we can to mitigate risk, and accept what risk remains, because we love flying and have judged the risks to be worth the rewards. If I had the choice, I would much rather be killed by my own mistake while doing something I love than killed by some random idiot while doing something I had little choice in.

And when was the last time you saw two pilots standing at a crash scene exchanging insurance information?

Thanks for this. I think all your videos are amazing. As a family man who's about to start his lifelong dream of getting my private license it puts things nicely into perspective.

I actually like this type of intro where you're talking over the music, which will save my time, and it streamlines the video down while giving it a nice professional feel

my wife just had back surgery from an auto accident. Rear ended while sitting at a stop light. You should do a chart on injuries that needed medical attention driving vrs plane. Should be mile per mile. 400 mile plane flight vrs 500 mile auto trip or what ever it is. You can add driving miles getting to and from your plane and what ever those odds of driving are included in with the flying risk. If you die in a plane or car that is bad but the biggest risk to me would be minor to serious injury's. without seeing any data I would bet driving on the roads are much more dangerous than flying if you remove fatalities from the equation. I hear of someone getting hurt in a car accident almost daily but not planes. I believe if you include injuries and deaths on both driving and flying ga flying would still be safer. Fantastic videos Keep up the good work.

its all about experience, training, and equipment. ERAU flies strictly GA aircraft and has flown well over a million flight hours in the past 10 years with zero fatal accidents or serious injuries (Holy crap). On the other side of the spectrum, I've gone to flight schools with poorly trained instructors or pilots, who fly horribly out of shape aircraft

so the lesson is: if you don't get the results you seek, you have not done enough calculations.

i'm still not sure which is safer after having watched this video. should i multiply by 0.3 or divide by turboprop...

I would consider seat time the standard metric to use in these comparisons. You aren't very likely to be killed by a plane or car if you're not riding in it.

you applied factors to the aircraft that should be applied to cars too. how many car accidents are caused by driver error?

Someone else may have said this but here goes. If you choose to drive safely, during good weather or with excellent drivers, and in modern cars, the equation might work the other direction.

I think the biggest thing you pointed out is toward the end of the video and that has to do with just how many variables there are that can be (or not be) mitigated depending on the choices of the pilot. Just looking the numbers: 5% are Aerobatic accidents 9% are VFR continued into IMC 5% are unsafe acts (which to the FAA are basically egregiously stupid things, not normal flying) 18% are insufficient terrain clearance enroute (usually called controlled flight into terrain) 14% are loss of control in adverse weather That means 51% of GA fatalities are not just avoidable, but easily avoidable. Almost all controlled flight into terrain happens in mountainous areas in IMC with terrain obscured. That's an easy situation to simply avoid. You don't have to fly aerobatics at all. You should never continue VFR into IMC no matter what happens, if for nothing else than it's illegal to do so. And simply planning properly and leaving yourself wide margins to avoid adverse weather again raises your odds greatly. None of those things are hard to do as a pilot to mitigate risk. They are actually very easy to do. Also, location plays a large part in the overall risks. Here's a number for you. 1 out of every 7 GA fatalities happen in Alaska. The reasons are fairly obvious (a lot of scud running and terrain issues there). Want to cut your risks by 1/7th without even trying? Don't fly in Alaska. Thirdly, the fatalities per hour stat so often cited does not take into account that many accidents have multiple fatalities. Sometimes 10-12 when a King Air or Biz Jet goes down (rare) and often 4-6 when a twin or 6 seater goes down. So the risks that your specific airplane will have a fatal accident are actually lower than it appears. This is why fatal accidents (i.e. individual airplanes) are a better number to use vs. total fatalities in all those accidents. I could keep giving examples but the point is that your average VFR daytime flight is actually much safer than the overall stats seem to suggest.

Just finished Paul Craigs book "The Killing Zone" He came to the conclusion that GA is more dangerous than driving but comercial flying was safer.

Nice video. The source of risks at the end is key here. Pilots can control many, but not all, of the risks. In cars, it's a free for all with unsafe drivers all around you.

I’ve concluded GA flying is, on average, about as safe as driving a motorcycle, on average. The big asterisk is that the motorcycle numbers include young drivers of sport bikes who have a much higher accident rate. Similarly, about a third of ga deaths seem to be from inexperienced mistakes. Any pilot can make a fatal mistake, but I’m talking about VFR into IMC, hot dogging, weight and balance issues, density altitude, flight into mountain wave conditions and the like. Experienced, trained and non careless pilots are much less likely to fall victim to those errors much like a longtime motorcyclists on a cruiser isn’t likely to die going 110mph on a city street.

Flying is safe if you don't mess up

In the "Killing zone. how and why pilots die" author Paul Craig offers very compelling and thorough statics showing that GA flying is 10.8 times more dangerous than the car driving...

Great video, I'm going to use this to show a few of my friends that flying isn't as bad as they think. I have this one friend who is so scared of flying, and I'm sure this will reassure them. True fact that you are more likely to die in a car on the way to the airport or to your airfield than you are to die In a plane. I know I don't have to say this, since I know you take the proper precautions, and perform all safety checks, and you are responsible, but stay safe. Can't wait for the next one.

Most of my flying allows me to avoid driving through LA on some very congested, often very fast moving traffic. I've dodged ladders (more than once), other cars sliding across the road, tires, furniture, and other debris. I've even had to maneuver around people . . . on the freeway . . . I've had so many close call moments that I've lost count. But, for example, at 8500 feet doing VFR corridor over LA on my way to Van Nuys, there are no ladders, no cars, no debris, and certainly no people in the way. It's so relaxing. I feel so much safer in the air in a 1963 Cessna 205 than I do in my brand new car on the freeway.

I ran the exact same analysis as I am getting my ppl, and agree with your conclusion.

I'm 35 and my dad started in aviation when I was 4 or 5. I can remember going to the airport at 5. In that time (30 yrs) I haven't seen 1 plane have an incident. I got my drivers license at 15 and in that amount of time (20 yrs) I can't count the auto accidents I've seen with my own eyes. Yes I've seen planes that have crashed; a few belly landings and a couple of crop dusters catch wires but not the actual incident like autos.

I also fly a Piper Cherokee 140! I’m obsessed with safety with everything, but especially when it comes to flying

Maybe I missed it but maintenance on an aircraft is mandatory but not mandatory on a car in the US. That is one very important factor.

My problem with this (common) type of analysis is that it groups all GA flights into one category. There are many types of GA flights. Some include flights for emergency purposes, business purposes, to visit family/friends on a scheduled visit and a need to get back in time to go to work , etc. This type of flight often ends up with pressure to get there even when there are weather issues, lack of proficiency on the pilot’s part, or even minor airplane issues. Many of the fatal accidents result at least partially from these issues. On the other hand, there are a lot of people like me who basically fly for fun and don’t fly if there are any issues with the plane, or the weather is bad, or I’m not feeling proficient. Yes, something can always go wrong but those of us who are careful to stay within our limits, stay proficient, and always strive to improve should be less likely to have an accident. Unfortunately, current data doesn’t seem to allow us to get an objective evaluation of that section of the pilot community.

In my opinion you need at least 200 hours to acquire proficiency. Pilots routinely say 500 hours. The problem is that a student initially has to get daily practice to get the 200 hours to stay current, but to do that you must fly by yourself because we don't have enough time to wait for a CFI or money to pay for 2-3 hours of CFI time every day. And the FAA prohibits students from flying by themselves, a catch 22.

cool video as always. can you do a video on sailplanes? I'm gonna solo soon in a Schweizer 2-33a N2028T.

Great Video. There are a lot of factors. Pilot experience, IFR vs VFR, fixed or retractable. I think we all wish the record was better. Seems about 380 fatal accidents per year has been pretty consistent. General aviation is about as safe as riding a motorcycle statistically.

As a driver and a pilot, I know I can beat statistical averages simply by doing a few things people “on average” don’t do. Most people speed on the highway, do some amount of texting/ phoning, drive while tired. Most pilots cut corners on weather minimums at least a little, skimp on preflights, fly too few hours under varying conditions per year. If I choose to do none of the above risky behaviors, I KNOW, I will beat the statistical averages.

Life is dangerous... I‘d rather have a nice life flying and doing my stuff than being safe and live longer. Why do we measure quality of life in years? If you think flying is too dangerous, then leave it to those who love it. There are a lot of dangerous things in the world, and we can’t evite death, so let’s just fly as safe as we can and enjoy

"Flying is safe so long as you remember how dangerous it is" (source Unknown). Private pilots decide what level of risk is personally acceptable. Remembering how dangerous it is causes us to operate in a way to reduce risk to a level that is personally acceptable. And then as with everything in life there is a degree of good and bad luck. You can be unlucky in a car, plane, or watching tv (a 40T truck smashing in to your house). The statement "you couldn't pay me to fly with some pilots" is therefore absolutely correct, just like I wouldn't get in a car with some people. Great videos.

I often tell people that GA aircraft are similar in risk to that of motorcycles. The difference is, on a motorcycle, while the primary risk is going to be your own behavior in traffic (if you ride safely) there's also a large risk factor related to the behaviors of other drivers. With GA, your risk is going to primarily be a function of your own behaviors. Hence the adage, "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots."

John and Martha King say that GA has a similar safety record as riding motorcycles. I've been flying since 1968. I've also owned two motorcycles when I was a kid. I've seen deaths on motorcycles and in airplanes. At least with airplanes, most of the control is in the hands of of the pilot. With motocycles, you can't predict when the other car is going to cut you off at the last second. I'm glad you continue to make very informative videos. We need them. Over 20 years ago there were 800k licensed pilots. Today there are only about 550K. If this trend continues, we will all be flying drones.

It's still best to be honest with your family and passengers. To us it's worth it, but let others make their own decision based on facts not the lie that the drive to the airport is the most dangerous part of the flight.Great video, I'm glad to see the topic addressed.

In Chicago the press reports a GA crash almost weekly. They always say its being investigated. It takes months or a year before the final NTSB report is announced... unless a celebrity is involved, of course. We almost never hear why it happened. That's why the occasionally flying public is fearful of man and machine. We've lost too many local broadcasters who were described as "very experienced" GA pilots. I always tell my family to drive FAST (to outrun the other guy). Drive safe is assumed. A wonderful video, discussion provoking as always.

Very interesting video and statistics. I heard once on the news that there's on average 800 boating fatalities per year in the USA alone and yet most people being afraid of flying might not think twice about going boating or jet skiing.

I did a calculation similar to yours to compare motorcycling to private flying (flying your own plane) - I used to have a 69 Cessna 177 Cardinal - and I ride motorcycles. If you compare the two the fatality rate per hour/mile is similar. BUT I figured that, flying myself, that at least it would be totally my fault, I would have to mess up some way (and I was very careful and methodical). Though you can solo-crash a motorcycle (I did that exactly a year ago today and broke my arm, lost traction on the back tire in a corner) - the advantage of flying over riding is YOU ARE VERY UNLIKELY TO HAVE ANOTHER PLANE TURN LEFT IN FRONT OF YOU. So - all things being equal - flying should be somewhat safer than riding a motorcycle, or at least if you do get into an accident it's much more likely to be your own damn fault.

The biggest variable is like you said....The competency of the pilot and how well the plane is maintained. There is a huge difference between a truly professional pilot who flies for a living and a poorly trained new private pilot. The same is true for the mechanical reliability of the aircraft . You should never fly with a new poorly trained private pilot in an airplane that he built himself (without having the required skills to build a plane). It would be worse than riding as a passenger on the back of a motorcycle driven by a 16 yr old boy who got his license an hour ago. Even with all of the regulations, there are a lot of people flying who should never be a pilot.

Nice video. It's real hard to compare different activities. Errors flying and driving contribute to accidents in both activities.

Key, the quality of the pilot. The skill of the pilot. I agree that good pilots are many; it is the few who make the skies dangerous.

What if you are just starting lessons and you can't even keep the plane going straight yet ? 😂

Fantastic Video keep up the good work!

I guess there’s other things to consider as well. Aircraft accidents would tend to have more fatalities than car accidents. Do aircraft accidents happen more in the take off and landing phases of flight?

Finally a real comparisons. So sick of the over simplified statistics of how safe flying is! well done

I have taken a tester session for flying. But it's common sense if your car dies on the highway you just pull to the side. In a plane 5kms in the air as you don't have that option

I believe this was hinted to in an earlier comment. I generally tell people that ask me what risks there are in flying my small plane, that it is about the same as riding motorcycles. They both have higher accident and injury/death rates than driving... and they're both a lot of fun.

I like how the cover photo of this video says 100,000,000 hours of driving which is 11,415.52 years

I like your interpretation on danger based on energy, but something even better is to make your own unit "x" in which *x=E • possibility of release*

The final point mentioned is the most important one to consider. In flying, the pilot is in control of almost 100% of the level of safety. You can make a flight as safe or as hazardous as you wish. On the road, you are largely subject to the mistakes of other drivers. The most cautious driver on the road could be killed by a drunk driver. Fatalities from multi-car collisions are common. In aviation, there is virtually zero chance of being killed from someone else's mistake. Midair collisions are < 1% of fatalities, contrary to public perception. Bottom line - the national average accident statistics don't have to apply to you. Follow a few simple best practices, and your odds of having a bad day drop by an order of magnitude.

This is my favorite of your videos. Thanks for making it. I used it as a model for a discussion on aviation safety in the first class I give for students seeking a PPL at the ground school I teach at.

I’m almost 16 and I have 14 hours and tbh I’m scared of doing my first solo

Nicely done and in a format everyone can relate to.

The head of the Air Safety Institute was recently killed in a GA crash. Make no mistake about it, GA is far more dangerous than commercial aiarliners

I worked in line service at a small municipal airport in Ks in the '80s. It was an education as to the differences in the attitudes of pilots whom I considered would be competent across the board. There were some who would rarely do a preflight, one, a physician who jumped in his twin Cessna like he would his car to to across town. I rode with one or two who acted more like cowboys than serious pilots. This diverse situation was a bit unsettling.

Another great video, my aviation brother! I love how you put the statistics into some perspective. Of course the media will ignore all rational analyses and continue to sensationalize any aircraft mishap; it just draws the crowds.

I disagree with your conversion of time into distance. You have to consider the amount of time participation vs fatality only. General Aviation is far more dangerous than people realize.

Keep up the good work Nick!

Very insteresting and well realized !

GA is on a ONE FATALE crash per day 9/11/22 - 9/17/22

There is probably no Fly rage. where there are so many auto accidents over road rage. this would have to be a factor. Thanks Nick. Back in 2000 when I was taking some refresher time. I was taxiing on Alpha at Norwood KOWD heading for 35. A student pilots doing solo work came out of the South ramp so fast the Ground Controller yelled at him to stop and wait for his instructor to move the plane.

Hi Nick, another great video, thank you. I'm writing this tonight before my flight to Tampa tomorrow with my entire family, and I mean everyone. If anything happens there's nobody left in my estate. In light of what happened in FFL this morning, we could have been there, as we stay in Delray often flying through FFL. It's not the flying I'm concerned these days as much as the nut jobs surrounding us. Be safe people.

Mqybe 2015 was bad year for private Aviation ?

I consider flying super safe I would love to fly with this pilot!!!!!I love Friendly Skies Film!!!also Friendly Skies Film has incurage'd me to get my pilots licence when I'm older!!!!

No, pilots we see on RU-vid don't give pilots deceptively good reputation. They really don't.

Confusing... so wait what's safer? Cars?

The average speed I clock on my car is actually about 40kph, so only 25mph.

Just too many qualifiers.

Im pretty sure 90% car accidents are also due to driver error. And before you say "but Im better than the average": people often super estimates their skills.

FWIW - Blue sky driving shows an uptick in accidents (CDL-A experience). More poorly qualified drivers and many paying less attention on a 'nice' day. Despite the inherent danger level mentioned, flying give you more control over 'acceptable risk' than driving, even when defensive driving is practiced.

Did you hear that the FAA has changed the medical regulation for GA pilots? I requires less FAA exams but puts more restrictions on what you can fly.

Should I have anxiety over the hypothetical happening of the elevators suddenly pitching downwards, sending us into inevitable death? I feared this when I flew a DHC back in June; smaller, propellerd aircraft scare me.

Flying is the safest way to travel. Given that there is, on average, 35,000 traffic fatalities in the US each year, when is the last time you heard of a commercial jetliner crashing in the US. For an average, packed, 200 occupant airliner, that would be the equivalent of 175 commercial jet crashes per year.

If you take one car journey, one airplane journey, one helicopter journey, one bicycle journey, one train journey, one bus journey, one boat journey (etc.) per day, you are most likely to have a serious accident on the bicycle or in the helicopter or airplane. Comparisons by mileage or time are comparing apples to oranges.

Excellent breakdown and info.

Your intros are awesome!

You will probably survive a crash in an aircraft (excluding collisions) since you will most of the time come to a controlled landing (engine out/out of fuel) but if you have a crash on the motorway/freeway you will instantly come to a stop and possibly die. Also safety varies depending on the traffic or lack there of (both in air and on ground)

IF you consider the amount of traffic in Los Angeles airspace or Chicago airspace or any other high traffic area, then look at the amount of accidents there are, it is amazing! (You would think that there would be a crash every 15 minutes) Just listen to air traffic control for Chicago Ohare sometime : it is total insanity! But day after day, around the clock, those planes come in and out of there like clockwork, and included in that traffic are general aviation aircraft too, and still the amount of accidents is unbelievably small! THen you get on the highway and count the number of close calls you have every week with some moron driver, and it sure does look like flying is safer.I think ATC deserves a lot of credit for the outstanding job that they do.Also we should be thankful that the standards for getting a pilot license are as high as they are.

Hmm, I'm not too sure about comparing likelihood of dying per mile is sensible, given that we wouldn't even consider doing by car some of the journeys that we do by air. An extreme example would be the Space Shuttle. Mile for mile it was probably safer than driving, but those astronauts did a lot more miles by Shuttle! In my case, I drive about half an hour to the airfield each week, fly around for an hour with my instructor, then drive home. Statistically speaking, I'm a lot more likely to die during the hour of flying than the hour of driving. What would be interesting to know is how much my mortality is increased by pursuing this crazy hobby above what it would otherwise be. I suspect that it isn't actually that significant; as a 50-year-old man, medical issues such as a heart attacks are probably a bigger worry. Be good to do the sums though!

Would also be interesting to compare the numbers of fatal car accidents in cities or rural areas.

Fuel question: Can you only fuel your aircraft enough to get to your location plus some or how does fueling work?

One thing I noticed about you're comparison between flying to driving. You removed commercial aircraft but I didn't hear you remove commercial truck traffic. I wonder what are you're thoughts on that and how might that Change you're numbers? Trucks might be hard to remove as a lot of cars crash into trucks. Depending on the study you look at, 84 percent of car-- truck fatal crashes are caused by the car. Having driven well over 3 million miles in a commercial truck those car-- truck stats sound about reasonable to me. Also the way you compared fatalities to energy was simple and brilliant. Never heard it explained that way before.

Of course it's dangerous. You're in a hunk of metal 35,000 _feet_ in the air. Maybe next you guys can do one that asks if it's dangerous to tightrope across the Grand Canyon.

Another way to look at it is: There are about 300 fatal private airplane accidents per year, and maybe around 300,000 active private pilots. So, as a private pilot, you have an overall risk of 1 in 1000 chance of dying in your airplane every year. This seems extremely high, and is certainly worse than its direct comparison to driver fatalities. The US has roughly 200 million drivers with 30,000 fatal accidents per year. Making your chances of dying in your car this year 1 in 6667. I want to get my PPL but I have four young kids and I cant justify the risk right now, especially since it would only be for pleasure. I was going to start the classes a few years ago but then a trainer and student died at the small airport I was going to attend. It changed my mind.

I think it's still apples vs oranges, how many of the dead in car crashes died because of their errors and not because of other drivers errors? I mean imagine a truck driven by an "error prone" driver slamming into an average car stopped at a crossroad: the unlucky man on the car dies while the truck driver survives the crash. Is this considered in the statistics? Idk, it's easier to keep safety high in aviation, car driving has a lot more variables I think.

I see that 25% of accidents are due to stalls, yet a stall is quite easy to prevent and even quite easy to recover (given you have enough height). How come it makes up for such a large proportion of accidents?

There are so many cars to cover those 100,000,000 miles of road. Which makes the driving more dangerous :P SO many factors we can put into this lol

I think the reason pilot error is so high is because they have the pilot over worked. Many routine tasks need to be automated. The Garmin flight control suite is a start. After making a flight of say three hours that pilot is going be exhausted and prone to making errors, which on an aircraft can be fatal. Self flying planes, well maybe, but if you want less pilot error then automate.

Such a well done video 👏🏻

180 MPH? Yeah right. I've never flown faster than 90 in a Champ, and ~80 in a sailplane.

Lol. As a GA pilot I agree GA is much more dangerous than driving. Estimating by death per millage is probably a good comparison between GA and Driving. The 1:0.9 is pure BS. Even most experienced ATP captain make mistakes, you can't simply eliminate that risk factor.

I would like to know were in the FAR's (Federal Aviation Regulations) it says that the FAA issues a Pilot License. I looked on mine and I had one for over 42 years now and I can't find the word license on it! But it does say certificate! Flying is not all that hard, anybody can learn too! The hard part is gaining enough experience to know when to say no. Accidents happen because of a chain of events that by themselves would be a none issue, but together, the become a trap and sometimes it ends badly!

Think about it this way: You'll hear about most fatal air accidents on the news. There are too many fatal car accidents to be considered newsworthy. You're more likely to be killed by another driver, whilst driving, but not by another pilot, whilst flying.

hmm. That does put in perspective some issues. I am currently a registered student of 'light sport aircraft', where locally there's been a major push to try and improve safety, because in this category fatalities in this country seem to be about 6.8 per 100,000 hours. Now, the LSA category covers everything from paragliders, to small two seat aircraft that also qualify for being registered as a 'general aviation' aircraft, but it still does seem a little questionable...

I would say that the two 'dangerous' points of flying would be, 1/ entering controlled airspace, as that's where aeroplanes are mostly densely packed, and coming from various directions at once, and 2/ landing. Taking off is easy, flying is easy, landing is you deliberately coming into physical contact with another object. A controlled collision, so to speak, with the wind rarely on your side.

I'm pretty sure we all know people (maybe ourselves) that have been in car crash and some probably have died. How many people do you know of that have been in plane crashes?

As with everything in life, it comes down to YOU. How safe a driver are you? How meticulous are you when it comes to flying? These things aren’t up to chance. Maintain your stuff, keep your proficiency up, don’t let the first link in the chain of disaster show up. There are always going to be freak incidents. One of us could be killed in our sleep by a meteorite. The rest is up to you as an individual…