Hello!
Originally Posted by
Raymond Dome
Is it just me that finds general aviation totally depressing?
I know what you mean and you are absolutely right, but "GA" is much more than those private flights (someone already pointed this out some pages back). NetJets, just to name one of the most prominent ones, and lots of other commercial operators of charter airplanes operate by the same standards as airlines and have a similar safety record. Many companies have (private in the sense of the legislation) corporate flying departments that operate at an even higher level. All these are "GA". In my view that is the safest way to fly - otherwise multi-billion corporations would not allow their top executives to use them.
Unfortunately accidents like the one we are discussing here discredit general aviation as a whole by assigning attributes like "unsafe", "dangerous", "cowboy" and "lethal" to lightplane operation. My personal consequence of this accident will be to report any such flight I am aware of to the authorities in the future. So far whistleblowing has never been my thing, but I earn my living as a "GA" pilot and I will do everything I can to prevent operations like the one that led to this accident to compromise my professional environment.