Weather is a contributing factor in roughly 35% of fatal general aviation accidents, about 100 US deaths every year.
This article pulls together data from the NTSB, FAA, EASA and AOPA to examine why weather briefings fail, and why the consequences are so disproportionate. Among the points covered:
- Why accidents in IMC are nearly four times as lethal as non-weather accidents
- Why VFR-into-IMC kills even certified pilots
- How visibility and ceiling conditions, though only a fraction of weather citations, drive most weather fatalities
- How risk multiplies with flight length and without an instrument rating
- Why 30 to 50% of these accidents could reasonably be prevented with better briefing tools
We also make the case for reducing cognitive load during pre-flight planning, which is exactly what our product Pilot Briefer was built to do.