Accidents during cruise are almost unheard of in turbine airplanes where the risk is concentrated in the departure and arrival phases of flight. General aviation pilots also come to grief most frequently in the airport vicinity, but an alarming number of accidents happen during cruise, which should be a benign part of any trip.
Most serious accidents in cruise involve bad weather. The less serious events usually are caused by a loss of power, typically because there is no fuel on board, or the fuel that is there isn’t reaching the engine. And there are several accidents every year that remain total mysteries. In these cases the pilot is usually flying VFR, not in contact with controllers, and the wreckage is found sometime later after a search is launched when the airplane is reported missing. That type of crash leaves very few clues to determine a probable cause.
