Single-Engine Airplane Risks Sometimes Escalate

Add night, mountains, or IMS, and the situation can worsen quickly.

Douglas Boyd

Tuesday, September 02, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Night flying is a classic good-news, bad-news story. [Credit: David Weaver/ChatGPT]

Key Takeaways:

Operating single-engine aircraft at night or over rising terrain significantly increases the risk of fatal accidents.
Pilots should proactively plan for emergency landings, considering alternatives to the "nearest airport" such as highways or open fields, which might offer better survival chances, especially at night.
Key mitigation strategies include maintaining higher altitudes for increased decision time, adhering to stricter weather minimums for night flights, and continuously planning routes to remain within gliding distance of suitable landing sites.

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Poring over accident reports is my mainstay as an aviation safety researcher, and after many years I’ve developed a thick skin about most accidents I research.

However, a fatal accident (November 2023/NTSB ERA24FA050) involving a turbocharged Piper Saratoga (N4187Q) on an IFR flight plan between Scott Municipal Airport (KSCX) in Oneida, Tennessee, and H.L. Sonny Callahan Airport (KCQF) in Fairhope, Alabama, struck close to home.