Good post Chuks, that pretty much sums it up. They are always crashing and there are always a whole bunch people saying how they shouldn’t have.
Piston twins have a poor safety record, and when you look at departure accidents with an engine inoperative the stats are truly concerning. It doesn’t seem to much matter if its hot, cold, high alt or sea level, very few manage to fly away on one engine. If you go through the NTSB reports you find aircraft in ideal conditions (cold, sea level, pilot only, etc) that never made it home from an emergency. I accept technique is critical but when you are talking about an aircraft where closing the cowl flaps makes the difference between life and death (and that’s true for a PA31) you have to admit that you are sailing very close to the wind.
Piston twin accidents also have a poor survivability rate. The speeds are usually higher (except in a BN2) and unlike in a piston single where you are sitting behind the densest part of the aircraft, in a twin you have little more than a nose cone between you and the rapidly approaching terrain. Also Avgas is rather volatile stuff and is mostly stored just behind the hot engine bits so post-crash fires are common and almost certainly survivable.
Piston twins in general are a cost effective solution. The acquisition price is usually low, they have considerably more utility than piston singles at a fraction of the running cost of a turbine powered alternative. You may save some money but what you lose is safety margin. Your piston twin may serve you well for years but if you are ever unlucky enough to have a dreaded engine failure on take-off you will need lady luck to smile on you. If she doesn’t your peers will be shaking their heads saying “it shouldn’t have happened”.
I’m sure soon we will hear all the “It can be done” stories and I accept that some great aviators amongst us have clawed their way home under horrendous conditions. However an average pilot in an average light twin with a departure engine failure will on average not be making a safe landing on his next return to earth.