Picking Up The Pieces

I spend a lot of my flying in the Idaho backcountry, where there are a lot of challenging but worthwhile airstrips. But it's not a forgiving environment since go-arounds can be problematic and density altitude means pilots may not be accustomed to the reduced performance. After decades in the business, Patrick has a lot of lived experience seeing a wide variety of crashed planes, especially in the backcountry. As a window into answering the eternal question "Why do pilots crash?" I felt his insights would be valuable.

Mike Hart

Thursday, October 03, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The vast majority of aircraft crashes are human-caused, stemming from a unique combination of factors rather than a single issue, even when mechanical problems are involved.
Crashes in challenging environments like the Idaho backcountry are frequently attributed to pilot inexperience, high density altitude, a tendency to show off, and, critically, a failure to initiate a go-around when needed.
Pilots can significantly reduce accident risk by seeking challenging training, actively maintaining core flying skills (especially without automation), and making prudent decisions to avoid stressful situations or execute timely go-arounds.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Since he was a youngster helping his father in the family business, Andy Patrick of SP Aircraft out of Boise, Idaho, has retrieved and salvaged aircraft. The workload varies. In a slow year, there may be a half-dozen aircraft to recover. In one particularly busy recent year, there were 24. There’s no real way to predict a given year’s activity.

I spend a lot of my flying in the Idaho backcountry, where there are a lot of challenging but worthwhile airstrips. But it’s not a forgiving environment since go-arounds can be problematic and density altitude means pilots may not be accustomed to the reduced performance. After decades in the business, Patrick has a lot of lived experience seeing a wide variety of crashed planes, especially in the backcountry. As a window into answering the eternal question “Why do pilots crash?” I felt his insights would be valuable.