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> general aviation crashes are often fatal

For the record something like 85% of GA crashes have no fatalities. A Cessna 172 will fly down to 40 knots, which is significantly slower than a car crash on the highway.




Sure, slower in absolute terms.

But a car crash on a highway typically involves two moving vehicles, reducing the delta at impact.

Moreover, cars are engineered specifically to protect occupants during a collision. They have safety cages, airbags, crumple zones, and can even be inverted and still sustain the passenger volume. A crashing airplane will not be able to protect its occupants in the same way.


Well, most “crashes” in a plane are basically just a minor bad landing. Someone touched a wing or forgot to put their landing gear down.

Aircraft too are designed to be resilient in certain collisions. Not head on with the ground, but you’d be surprised how survivable crash landings are.


Landing without your gear down does not seem like a 'minor bad landing'. Seems like a very major mistake to make?


Well your insurance company is going to be really pissed but you’re likely going to walk away. Hulls are designed to withstand that.


> But a car crash on a highway typically involves two moving vehicles, reducing the delta at impact.

This doesn't seem correct.


How not? If car A and car B are traveling on parallel routes at speeds X and Y, then their speed delta is |X-Y|, which will always be < X and < Y unless one of them is driving into oncoming traffic.


perhaps they're thinking of two vehicles moving in the same direction. Many (most?) highways have separations between oncoming traffic lanes.




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