Looking at the ATSB summary 2000 -2011 accidents or incidents in GA caused by airframe failure was 4.6% ot the total.
McCormick has fallen into the trap of looking for low hanging fruit. It is easy to swan around looking for corrosion and those CASA people must remain employed.
I wish ATSB would do the analysis better and see if there is any correlation between aircraft age and structural failures that were actually preventable by better maintence practices or increased maintenance schedules.
My guess would be that training offers much better opportunities for actually lowering the incident and accident rate, for example the rates for privately piloted helicopters are horrendous.
Last edited by Sunfish; 3rd Aug 2013 at 20:27.