"Dan Luke" wrote:
Wait 'til Scary Mary gets on TV with this:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10403256.htm

Here's the link to the original JAMA article (requires registration to read
the article - which I have not yet done myself):

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/297/14/1596

Some of the conclusions mentioned in the article that Dan linked to appear
to be inconsistent with the annual NALL reports; specifically "Not wearing
safety restraints, including lap belts and shoulder restraints, is another
risk factor for pilot death," and "The higher fatality rate for general
aviation crashes may be because such aircraft are not as able to withstand
impact forces and protect occupants from death and severe injury as
commercial aircraft are."

So far as I know, neither of the those two assertions appear to have any
validity. An implication in their claims is that commercial aviation and
general aviation both have a comparable number of accidents per flight hour
but that GA accidents have a higher probability of generating fatalities.
That runs dramatically contrary to statistics I've seen elsewhere.