More fatalities occur on multi-crew a/c worldwide than single crew ops....purely on that basis, you are more likely to be hurt or killed in a medium T/P or Jet..than say a Seneca..etc.
You may be right, but then from a fatalities persective, one 747 crashing has about the same level of fatalities as 80-odd SPIFR accidents, so it is a bit of a spurious statistic.
.. more to do with risk management, training, and the ability and confidence to be aware and understand the unforgiving environment in which these SPIFR (IMC) accidents occur.
I absolutely agree with you, however those very things are most likely to be missing in SPIFR. When I started out, I was flying in marginal weather, with little hard IFR experience, and little aviation experience in general. Although I was flying for a reputable operator, I was under no illusions regarding the pressures to get the job done - mostly financial ones. There are very, very few SPIFR operators who pay more than lip service to training. Compare this to the corporate environment, where the aircraft may be a similar size, but it is likely to very well equipped and flown by top-notch people who have been extensively trained. Compare the accident rate between corporate flights, and SPIFR flights in similar aircraft, and you will see my point. You have to do this using US stats as we don't really have a lot of corporate aircraft in NZ; however, in the US, you will find Learjets and the like being operated SPIFR, as well as corporate two-crew, so the figures are particularly valid.
As an aside, when training, particularly line training of new guys, I often found the SPIFR guys were the most able pilots, but also the most prone to taking risks. They often had to un-learn a lot of bad habits. I also have to say that I would find it very hard, as a jet training captain, to work in their world - it is a different skill set.
It is a pity we can't seperate this into two threads, because this discussion needs to be had.
Going back to the subject of pressure, I should point out here that I do not believe for a second that there were any financial pressures, or in fact any external pressures, in this accident.