* The Weekly Image Thread 22 07 29 #705 *

The probability of being killed in your car is higher. Floatplanes are generally flown over water. If your engine quits you glide down and land in the water. However, I have not been able to find a single case of the engine quitting on a floatplane flight. Additionally, they are very stable and fly smoothly.

We have been flying float planes commercially in Seattle since shortly after the Second World War. I lived here for nearly 20 years and can not remember a single floatplane accident. It is one of the safest ways to travel.

I could only find records of 4 accidents Kenmore Air had in 70 years. In two of four the planes came down in the water and everyone was rescued. The pilot was killed on one flight from low visibility due to heavy fog. There were no passengers. 7 people were killed in an accident in the mountains where was no water to land in.

I could only find one floatplane fatality here in 7 years. That was the pilot on a flight with no passengers. The cause was heavy fog.  I'm going to call that pilot error. You stay on the ground when you can't see, you turn around and land to avoid it. Pilots, unless they are idiots, are in constant contact with each other and ground controllers who know the weather conditions.

ZERO accidents were caused by engine or mechanical failure of any kind. All of the accidents, 100% of the ones I could find were caused by pilot error or visibility/weather which are usually the same thing - bad judgment to be up there. Human error, not because the plane had only one engine.

I feel safer in a single-engine floatplane over water than I do in a car on an American freeway in a densely populated area. Pilots are highly trained and assisted by each other and people on the ground. The idiots are piloting cars.