I report on accidents in the type in which I specialize specifically to identify trends and orient training programs to address the greatest threats. I make something of a career of writing about accidents in Aviation Safety and elsewhere. I try to balance the reports with with good news–for example, I recently made a presentation on engine failure accidents in Beech Bonanzas and Debonairs in the decade 2011-2020 (with an NTSB Member in the back of the room). I emphasized the things pilots can do to prevent engine failures and to respond if a failure does occur. But stressed also that in a fleet with a conservatively estimated 750,000 flying hours in that decade there were only 159 NTSB reports citing power loss in these types of airplanes. On average you can fly 4716 hours before experiencing power loss in flight, and over 1/3 of those are directly attributable to fuel management. So keep the fuel flowing and that’s an average 7500 flying hours between engine failure events–more time than most non-career track pilots will ever fly. NTSB does not investigate all engine failures, but it does most. This is also part of the risk management equation, and that’s how I use accident reporting.
That said, I have presented in a NTSB forum including most of the Members themselves saying there Congressional mandate to investigate every single reportable aircraft mishap is a waste of time and money because we have enough data to tell us where the risks are. We need to turn these data into changes in instructional topics and methods. The flip side is that is they do no investigate all the crashes they won’t identify new trends if and when they emerge.
As for reporting in the popular media (and in our niche, AVWeb is extremely popular), I’m with you–if there is something notable about a specific event (notable perhaps being that it has received a lot of non-aviation press) then you probably ought to report it. If nothing else it balances all the reports of successes to remind readers that the is great risk in flying, and it’s up to us to prevent what we can and prepare for dealing with scenarios we cannot prevent.
Keep walking that fine line, Paul.