Originally Posted by
Fuji Abound
With regards to most accidents being caused by the pilot or avoidably poor maintenance I dont think we need the stats to support the premise. If you read the reports it is apparent just how many pilots are candid enough to admit the accident was their fault - by extrapolation one suspects that this would be equally true of those that sadly kill themselves.
in Europe the data and analysis is incomplete at best. In the US there are a number of detail analysis based on the ASF database. These consistently show pilot error such as loss of control in landing/takeoff, low flying, LOC enroute, stall/spin, VFR into IMC, overloading, trying to achieve performance beyond book spec (too sort, to heavy, to far for the fuel), etc. There is no doubt that pilot error (as implicitly defined by the prior list) is the overwhelming cause of accidents.
some of these pilot errors may have been prompted by a mechanical problem. The best example is a ME aircraft crashing as the result of loosing one engine. flown correctly (assuming loaded per POH) this should not result in a crash, but sometimes it does and in this case it often gets classed as pilot error.