Totally agree when everything is going right flying is very easy and safe but that is not what kills pilots!
It is when things go wrong, when the pilot is tested that some start to loose the plot.
I think you will find that most CFITs took place with the pilot(s) being actually very comfortable indeed and suspecting absolutely nothing.
I was flying from Nice to Gatwick at night climbing up through storm clouds through 24000 feet when all three screens went black so having an all singing dancing aeroplane is little to do with the situational awareness that I am talking about.
So, you fly the heading, maintain the pitch/roll attitude, and tell ATC you are in the sh*t. ATC will part the waters for you. You DO NOT pretend to be a hairy chest hero and fly the rest of the filed route complete with a single pilot IFR 12-stepdown SDF approach into Kathmandu at night, IMC and icing conditions
Any monkey can fly straight-ish in IMC, with a little bit of radio chatter.
The killer is overload or brain freeze and some have a natural much higher load limit before that is achieved.
I don't think so. I think that mostly just causes c0ckups, and it definitely causes IR checkride failures
after all that is not too common!
Per individual, it happens only once