On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 15:22:52 GMT, "Tony Cox" wrote:

"Tom S." wrote in message
...


I always get a kick out of the FAA determinations: the pilots failure to
keep maintain flight after wing fell off...

Every accident is the pilot's fault. But sometimes, the pilot's only
mistake was getting out of bed that morning... :-)

I've noticed that too. About 10 years back they were very anti-pilot,
but now they are a bit more realistic. Did some old crust retire?

I'm currently engaged in a statistical analysis of accidents, and have read
about 600 reports in the last several weeks. You still see the main fault
being assigned to the pilot when the accident was precipitated by a
mechanical fault. The vast majority of those cases involve engine failure
(in fact, I don't recall seeing cases that *didn't*).

Ron Wanttaja