The Federal Aviation Administration has required thousands of changes that have toughened flight rules and made safer planes. Pilots now have better training that relies on lessons from past accidents. When there is a crash of a small plane, however, it's likely to be at least partly the pilot's fault. Pilots are cited as a cause or contributing factor in 77 percent of accidents and 83 percent of fatal accidents. The environment, which includes weather and lighting, was cited in 45 percent of all accidents and 40 percent of fatal accidents.
Most accidents involve more than one cause.
Accidents are most likely to occur on weekends, when there's a high percentage of private pilots in the sky. They have less experience and are more likely to make mistakes. Tunstill echoed other pilots Monday in hoping the Kennedy crash doesn't lead to to misperceptions about the safety of flying small planes. All rights reserved.