So we can be more or less agreed that alcohol actually plays such little part in the performance/non-performance of pilots with regard to recorded accidents/incidents that it can be disregarded.
I don't think we know that at all. Not based on the data presented so far.
Not unless we know:
The percentage and raw number of flights conducted by impaired pilots.
And the percentage of THOSE FLIGHTS which result in an accident - as compared with the accident rate overall.
The only way to test that is to test every crew for alcohol or drugs before every flight, and then
let them fly, regardless of the test results, and record what happens.
There is a big difference between:
- What percentage of accidents are due to alcohol impairment?
- What are the odds of alcohol impairment resulting in an accident?
This report mentions an experiment in which
50 percent of instrument-rated pilots with a BAC over 0.12 lost control of their aircraft.
Alcohol Violations and Aviation Accidents: Findings from the U.S. Mandatory Alcohol Testing Program
It is unlikely, thanks to self-policing by pilots, and regulatory testing and the threat of testing, that any given flight will be conducted by alcohol-impaired pilots. Even in GA, alcohol impairment found in fatal accidents has shrunk from 30% in the 1960s to 8% in the 1990s. A cultural change.