Interestingly NTSB statistics (GA only) show that there are roughly 430 engine failure accidents per year in the US GA fleet of about 150,000. This equates to 0.2%. To normalise that against number of hours flown, it works out at 1 per 50,000 flight hours or something like that. Of those about a quater are "non mechanical" i.e. the likes of fuel or some other reason. About 14% of engine failures result in a fatality (1 per 357000 flight hours).
So I'm guessing that some sorts of flying are more hazardous than others - test flying being one example.
Guppy can you point me to the NTSB report if it was in the USA please? I'd be interested to read it but couldn't find it. Thanks.