Originally Posted by
englishal
I expect you'll find that most accident reports - well the weather related incidents anyway - either come from IR holders or non-instrument rated pilots.
I personally know (knew) 1 IR holder who flew into a mountain during an instrument approach. I don't recall any specific weather related accident which was due to someone exercising the privileges of an IMC rating, although there may have been one or two where the pilot was attempting not to break any rules by trying to remain "vfr"....although they probably could have continued safely in IMC...
The answer depends on what geography we are talking about. In the US I would have thought no IMCr pilots have come to grief due to IMC conditions
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Also, for the UK, the answer depends on what timeframe you look at. I was quite surprised at the decline in approach related fatal accidents over the last 20 years (some in 11-20 years ago, none 1-10 years ago). I suspect the increase in moving map GPS and more recently TAWS has significantly reduced the chances of a gross error approach accident (although the G-LENY accident was only by the grace of God not in the fatal category).
Over the years there have been a number (not a large number) of IMCr accidents that can quite reasonably be attributable to weather (i.e. hitting a hilltop reported as shrouded in cloud) - This is not in anyway questioning the safety of the IMCr - All sorts of pilots with all sorts of ratings come to grief.