Expert: Marc Ebelini - 11/23/2009

Question
What is the leading cause of most plane crashes? In your opinion, are they occurring less and less as plane travel gets more "computerized?"

Answer
Apologize for the delay in my response but had appointments to keep. If it was technical question I might have been able to run off a quick response but this took some thought. Granted aircraft malfunctions cause crashes but a malfunction is not necessarily the reason for a fatal crash. Because we need to separate the two. The case in point was the recent landing in the Hudson river. In the hands of another pilot the results could have been different. Putting an aircraft back on the on the ground with minimum damage is the test. Personally experienced many malfunctions and managed to put the aircraft back on the okay. You may call it luck but I say it was knowledge of the aircraft it's self has a lot to do with it. Here is a scenario. One week at the local airport there were several engine failure caused by a bad batch of fuel (Too much lead)
My close friend died in one of the engine failures. Pilot error was blamed. Why? To begin with he had the aircraft out of the CG range because he put two males and a little boy in the back seat and was carrying a collapsible motor scooter in the baggage compartment. Trying to stretch his glide loaded with the CG too far aft cause it to stall close to the ground nose down. Had plenty of fuel on board so the plane burst into flames. So you see there are many factors involved but in my experience working with the NTSB all the cases I worked were pilot error directly or indirectly. Worked both sides. The NTSB deal with the facts and the attorneys put the spin on it. Pilot always say "if you walked away from the crash it was a good landing."
To contradict my answer, the airplane that went down east of south America was a direct mechanical failure in the flight control system cause by bad instrumentation. However an experience pilot may have felt the difference in the handing characteristics on the controls and realized there was something wrong and slowed down and return the south America. Like I said above knowing your aircraft. And that is my opinion.