Opinion:
Jason Lambert
For every 100,000 hours of flight time, there is 1 plane crash. Except no one is really sure if the numbers of flight hours have anything to do with reality. The FAA is just estimating the numbers based on a small percentage of private pilots that fill out the voluntary survay. So planes might be flying less then estimated, which means that the number of crashes per 100,000 hours of flight time might be higher. Or, they could be flying more then estimated, and the number of crashes per 100,000 hours of flight time might be lower..........
"Selfies" may have been a contributing factor to a fatal private plane crash near Denver in May 2014, according to federal officials, who discovered a GoPro camera full of self-portraits at the crash site. But though the story made the rounds for its tragic absurdity, high-profile fatalities in private aviation are not rare.
On Jan. 2, a 7-year-old girl walked away from a crumpled plane in Kentucky, the sole survivor of a crash that killed her parents, sister and cousin. In December, a private plane crashed into a Maryland neighborhood, killing six people, including a woman and two small children in a home hit by the aircraft. And a Gulfstream jet crash in Massachusetts last June killed a prominent media investor, as well as six others on board.
