Car vs Planes Fatal Crash

Of the ones you met or knew. How the most died?

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Piloto

Piloto

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Piloto
I personally knew or met 8 indiviudals that died on airplane accidents but none on car crashes. Is that because I am involved in aviation? From my experience and perspective it looks like flying is more dangerous than to those that are not involved in aviation. On the other hand I know more people that drive cars than fly airplane. So what is the reality of the facts?

José
 
I've lost more friends and aquaintences to aircraft.
Most are in military aircraft and only one to a civil aircraft mid air.
 
I've known more people who died in cars and motorcycles.
 
I've known far more people who were killed in airplanes. I can only think of two people killed in car crashes and that was back in HS. That's not counting the fatal car crash I witnessed a few years ago but I didn't know the person. I've known one person killed on a motorcycle and that was only a couple years ago.
 
The stats put planes are a bit more dangerous than cars and about the same as driving motorcycles.
 
Everskyward said:
That's not counting the fatal car crash I witnessed a few years ago but I didn't know the person.
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I witnessed a fatal motorcycle crash once (I also did not know the person)... that's something that stays with you.
 
Tracey said:
I witnessed a fatal motorcycle crash once (I also did not know the person)... that's something that stays with you.
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This +1, although I knew him and was part of our riding group. That day is vividly implanted in my mind. Its the reason I took up flying and reduced my street riding. Not because I think its safer, I would probably argue the opposite.
 
Without replaying my life in my mind so as not to dredge up bad times my gut feeling is car/trucks took out twice as many friends as planes. :sad::sad:

... With a plane I can control my destiny.. With the other 200+ million idiots on the road you don't know which one will take you out.. I prefer to be able to set my own course in life....:yesnod:

Ben.
 
N801BH said:
... With a plane I can control my destiny.. With the other 200+ million idiots on the road you don't know which one will take you out.. I prefer to be able to set my own course in life....:yesnod:
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I grew up as the son of a California Highway Patrolman, and the monthly CHP magazine was on the coffee table all the time in our home. Seeing the photos in those magazines, and hearing my dad's stories, made me the conservative driver (and pilot) that I am. Now I deal with motor vehicle crashes on a daily basis in my work. Ben is so right -- there is much that is completely out of your control out there on the highway.
 
Every third day I work twelve hours on a helicopter and then twelve hours on an ambulance. I respond to traffic accidents almost every shift. I respond to aircraft accidents on a less-than yearly bases.

Now on a personal level, I have had several friends and acquaintances killed in car/motorcycle crashes and only one friend killed in an aircraft crash.
 
I don't know anyone that has been killed in an airplane, but several that we're killed in car/motor cycle crashes. Most airplane crashes will involve the pilot screwing up, where with auto crashes there are a ton of other factors. Other drivers, animals on roadways, etc.
 
I have personally known people that died in car crashes. Actually a few. And I know a lot of local/friends of friends/makes the news, etc... a LOT. I only personally know one acquaintance who died in an airplane crash (Sean Derosier, acro pilot for Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo tequila brand), who died in an airshow performance that went bad.

That statistic is skewed, If you are in aviation circles, you will know friends that have had mishaps and even died. In the big picture, I feel safer up there than down on the freeway.

I travel between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley on an almost daily basis. A week doesn't go by when I don't see a nasty accident. I see a fatality about once every couple months. And that's just on one 100 mile stretch of freeway. And I have had MANY more close calls on the freeway on any given day than I will in an airplane in the same route in a year.

I'll take the high route, thank you, conditions permitting.
 
I personally knew more people who died of cancer, than anything to do with aircraft. 6:1.
 
No one who I knew has died in a GA accident, although there was one man I worked with at one time who went down on a commercial flight. Several people I knew have died in vehicle accidents - including one who was a retired airline pilot.

Dave
 
Sac Arrow said:
That statistic is skewed, If you are in aviation circles, you will know friends that have had mishaps and even died.
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That logic doesn't work because all the pilots I know drive and I know far more drivers than pilots.
 
Most of the deaths of folks I knew have been in beds :wink2: . I try not to sleep much.

Very few losses due to aviation, one from skydiving (accident not under his control). Otoh every single person I know who ventured into paragliding ended up in the ICU for a couple of days :(.
 
Everskyward said:
That logic doesn't work because all the pilots I know drive and I know far more drivers than pilots.
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So you think it would be a more fair question to ask "of the pilots you new how many died in planes and how many in cars" Since all the pilots drive the risks of each activity are for indviduals that are involved on both. By excluding drivers only this would skew the poll toward flying being a more risky activity. Or can indicate that pilots are better at driving than at flying.

José
 
Of all the people I've lost to motor vehicle accidents, most have been in cars. A few in motorcycles, and only one personal friend in a civilian plane. But the numbers are skewed. Of my friends who died in cars, some slid off icy roads, some (always teenagers) raced over the railroad tracks to beat the train, one, his mind on his work, drove across the divided highway into the path of an oncoming truck, and some were hit by drunks, by people distracted by talking, texting, or otherwise fooling around. We once rounded a western mountain road in time to see a car go over the cliff. There were bad injuries, but the only (immediate) fatality in that car full of party people was a toddler who wasn't buckled in.

The one aviation fatality was the result of a really stupid decision-- if that's what it was, and not an MI on takeoff. The autopsy results were inconclusive due to the crispy nature of the very experienced CFI. I have, of course, heard and read of many more bad outcomes, but we're talking about personal experiences, right?

So, it's easy for me to think driving's more dangerous. The numbers, though, don't support my observation. GA IS statistically more dangerous, almost as dangerous as riding motorcycles. But naturally, I'm inclined to say, "Yeah, but-- I wouldn't do that risky thing." Or "I'm more in control of the options when I'm flying, and nobody's driving left of center up there, not many drunks, etc."

But the fact is, life is risky, and hardly anybody survives much more than a century, even with the most careful living. I'm thinking that life swaddled in fluffy quilts, drinking green tea, and taking no chances might not be much worth living.
 
Piloto said:
So you think it would be a more fair question to ask "of the pilots you new how many died in planes and how many in cars"
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I can't think of any pilots I know who died in cars.

Piloto said:
Or can indicate that pilots are better at driving than at flying.
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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Observation tells me that this is not the case...
 
Pilots are better drivers?? I am, of course, but some aren't. One friend was a very fine and crazy-courageous helicopter pilot- who won the MOH for stomping bad guys with his helicopter, in order to rescue his fellow Marines. He didn't make it over the opening draw bridge on his motorcycle one night...:sad:
 
All this talk of death makes me think of my demise. I want to go in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming like the other three in his car.
 
I know four people who died in aircraft accidents (not including the other 7 people that were passengers and died in those crashes). Two were helo crashes, one I witnessed that killed 4 people and another that I was supposed to be a passenger in, but canceled at the last minute.

I've lost count of people I know that have been killed in car/bike crashes.

Won't even get into those who died from illnesses, sports related, suicide, etc.
 
Polled my wife, together we find:
natural causes>aircraft>road vehicles.

Did witness a military demo jet fatal in a lake, as a youth. Don't understand why it didn't put me off aviation, it was fairly traumatic.
 
I have know three people who have died in plane crashes. Each of them made very poor decisions. It's sad, but I have known more people who have been murdered than that. Many more in auto accidents.
 
statistics are too manipulative - read somewhere that more people were killed by donkeys a year than airplanes. as a former medic, was always responding to car accidents. can't believe that aircraft incidents outnumber vehicles. look on the street and then look in the air.
 
"The annual risk of being killed in a plane crash for the average American is about 1 in 11 million. On that basis, the risk looks pretty small. Compare that, for example, to the annual risk of being killed in a motor vehicle crash for the average American, which is about 1 in 5,000."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-risky-is-flying.html

My own quick and dirty statistics lookup indicates about 6,000 U.S. deaths related to General Aviation over the past 10 years and about 500,000 deaths from motor vehicle accidents in that same period.
 
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all that tonnage of metal whizzing by controlled by teens, the elderly, and morons alike scare the bejeezus out of me. bejeezus? i've never used that term before so it must be valid.

from Fox news site: 15 deaths have been reported at a skydiving center southeast of LA out of 1,680,000 since 2000.
 
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Challenged said:
"The annual risk of being killed in a plane crash for the average American is about 1 in 11 million. On that basis, the risk looks pretty small. Compare that, for example, to the annual risk of being killed in a motor vehicle crash for the average American, which is about 1 in 5,000."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-risky-is-flying.html

My own quick and dirty statistics lookup indicates about 6,000 U.S. deaths related to General Aviation over the past 10 years and about 500,000 deaths from motor vehicle accidents in that same period.
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I'd be interested in how they come up with the statistics. For example, yesterday I spent about 3 hours in the car and 7 hours in aircraft. That gives me roughly twice the exposure to aircraft accidents as car accidents. I am also abnormal. Most people spend far more time in their cars than in aircraft.

So the real question would be, for one hour of driving vs. one hour of flying, which one gives you a greater risk? I have no doubt for me that the drive to the airport is more dangerous than the flight, but it would be interesting to try to determine which is truly more risky.
 
I only have 4 pilots in my family, 2 of them were involved in accidents, neither was injured. I don't know anyone that has ever died in a car accident. Plenty od close calls, just lucky I guess.
 
GA is dangerous OK? More-so then you might want to admit to yourself. Can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen.
 
I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at how many of you don't know anyone killed in automobile accidents. My brother was killed in one when we were growing up, my very best friend was killed in one just after graduation from high-school and a life-long friend was killed while I was in college. My mom was even crippled for life when her and I were in a head on collision with another driver while I was in high-school. When you live in a rural area, you're exposed to potentially more fatal accidents, which I guess is part of the reason for my experiences.
 
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Challenged said:
I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at how many of you don't know anyone killed in automobile accidents. My brother was killed in one when we were growing up, my very best friend was killed in one just after graduation from high-school and a life-long friend was killed while I was in college. My mom was even crippled for life when her and I were in a head on collision with another driver while I was in high-school. When you live in a rural area, you're exposed to potentially more fatal accidents, which I guess is part of the reason for my experiences.
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I'm relatively young, compared to many of the old farts here (37) driving is much safer than it used to be, cars are several orders of magnitude safer than they used to be. It's still boggles my mind that we tolerate something that kills 40,000 people a year. It will only be solved when we aren't allowed to drive anymore :hairraise:

General Aviation isn't much safer than it was in the 60's (don't tell my wife that) but driving sure is.
 
I am not voting. I don't think anecdotal evidence tells us much with this subject, especially with a bunch of pilots whom tend to know other pilots and therefore increases the odds of knowing an aviation related fatality.

I don't understand the point of this poll.
 
I'm right at that same age eMKay, and definitely agree with you on all points. 40,000 needless fatalities every year is pretty sobering. It seems that we've made some pretty good strides with automated driving lately (see Google), so I'm hopeful that we can dramatically lower this number in the coming years.

I actually don't personally know anyone who's been killed in an airplane accident, but I've only been flying for about a year and a half. I'm hoping that I can still say the same thing 10 or 20 years from now.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
So the real question would be, for one hour of driving vs. one hour of flying, which one gives you a greater risk?
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If direct observation is any indication, excluding stupid airplane tricks like launching at night in freezing rain with low ceiling, driving is far more dangerous.

I drove 20 miles yesterday that took about an hour give or take a few minutes. Two redlight runners one of which required emergency braking to avoid collision, three or four stop sign roll throughs two of which close enough to require a lane change to go around the nutjobs front end, a typical driver making a right turn maneuver where the driver goes into the lane to the left of them before making the right turn which nearly took out the truck next to him, multiple tailgaters close enough that I couldn't see bottom of their windshields. I won't even count the neighborhood I was going to where I full stop at each intersection even when I have right of way and they have the stop sign because EVERYBODY runs stop signs there at 30mph with restricted visibility. I see at least 2 wrecks in the area each month. Just a typical ho hum routine drive in west denver.

The last hour of flight I did, zero risk. Well, zero risk excluding the drive to/from the airport.


The real questions is where do you want your threat to come from? Self induces or someone else trying to kill you?
Freezing rain scud running at night in hill country or not maintaining adequate flying speed is self induced and get what you deserve kind of stuff. Other cars coming out of nowhere to kill you while you are doing everything right is quite another. The one serious motorcycle wreck I was in was because the opposite direction murderous cager deliberately crossed the centerline and ran me off the road. That would have certainly been a catastrophic injury and likely fatal based on the damage to my helmet and crash gear.
 
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