How 'safe' is private flying?!
I'm often asked the question by prospective passengers, and feel a bit disingenuous trotting out the usual line about how flying is safer than driving/walking blah blah. That's certainly the case for commercial aviation, but I'm pretty sure it's not the case for private flying in a spam can.
I've done a few internet searches but can't find much in the way of stats. I've come across a few references to private flying being around the same level of safety as riding a motorcycle but I would intuitively have thought it much safer than this.
The other factor to add to the 'mix', I guess, is that the most common causes of GA accidents (CFIT, VFR into IMC and fuel exhaustion) are largely "self inflicted" and the statistically average risk of suffering this type of accident is higher than the actual risk if proper planning is used, conservative decisions are taken etc.
In particular I'm still unable to take my dad flying because other family members are convinced it's dangerous and reckless (and my dad himself has pointed out that he would need to adjust his life insurance policy, itself suggesting that loss adjusters view light aviation as a risky activity!).
What are peoples' thoughts? I'd like to be able to give an informed response which is still reassuring - along the lines of "admittedly less safe than flying in a BA 747, but still pretty safe when compared to other every day activities" - but can find no real evidence to back this up.