I worked at Flight Service for 20+ years at many locations including Utah and Alaska. Aside from aircraft handling accidents (moose stalls, density altitude issues, running out of gas, flying up a canyon where terrain elevation increases faster than your climb rate, etc.), I’ve come to the conclusion that the three most important safety considerations in VFR flight are: 1. Night 2. Mountains 3. Weather (low ceilings and/or visibilities). Flying with any one of these factors can be relatively safe if you have the proper experience, equipment and training. Flying with two of these factors and the margin for error is getting slim, you’d better be a pro and on your “A” game. Few VFR pilots survive an attempted night flight, in mountains, in bad weather.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/reader-mail/top-letters-and-comments-july-5-2019