Comment on Am I weird for avoiding flying on prop planes, and only fly on jets?
scytale@lemm.ee 10 months agoNot sure if I remember right, and I’m happy to be corrected, but isn’t the stats for plane crashes/accidents skewed by the smaller prop planes? When I see the typical conversation that flying is safer than driving etc., and then one side points to the numbers for plane accidents, the counter to it is that most of those accidents aren’t the big commercial planes most people fly on.
Small planes and jets are the lion’s share of aircraft incidents. They aren’t inspected as often(more in the case of personal planes), lack the stability of larger craft, and aren’t always flown by experienced pilots. Not to mention they frequent small dirt of grass airfields instead of commercial airport tarmac.
There are like 3-5 small aircraft crashes a day. Small aircraft crash at like 25x the rate of larger craft.
The risk of a mishap is greatest on takeoff and landing. Inflight mishaps are extremely rare.
A “flight” is one takeoff and one landing. The largest aircraft have the longest duration flights. They might be airborne 12+ hours at a time. They might fly fewer than 10 flights a week.
Small commercial aircraft flying local and regional routes might be shorter than an hour. These aircraft might have 70 flights a week.
A student pilot in the smallest, single-engine GA aircraft might spend all day shooting touch-and-goes to build time and experience. Each touch-and-go is a landing-and-takeoff. These aircraft might have 300 “flights” a week.
Yes, the smallest aircraft are going to have the highest per-airframe mishap rate, simply because they experience the most risky phases of flights much more frequently than large aircraft.
Per-flight, the risks aren’t significantly different.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 10 months ago
I would expect more mishaps from a regional turboprop, flying ten 45-minute flights a day, than a widebody flying a single 12+ hour flight a day.
Mishaps are most prevalent on takeoff and landing. The aircraft that make the most takeoffs and landings are going to have the highest mishap rate.