While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to such a broad question, there’s a single response that covers the vast majority of all aviation accidents. On any given day when a pilot bends an airplane, he wasn’t flying like the ideal pilot whose behavior he would have preferred to mimic were he given another chance to do so.

Three assumptions are implied in this answer. First, it’s assumed that pilots can do something to keep themselves safe in an airplane. Second, pilots know the ideal or best behavior to use in any given situation aloft to protect themselves and their passengers. Third, pilots are capable of bringing their actual behavior in line with the ideal pilot behavior appropriate for any given circumstance.

Let’s begin with the first assumption. Can a pilot do something to keep himself safe in an airplane?

You bet.

Authorities tell us that nearly 75% of all accidents are the result of pilot error. After talking to literally thousands upon thousands of pilots for the past 30 years, my experience tells me the percentage is really much, much higher. Nearly all aviation accidents are the result of something over which the pilot has influence. True, in the murky badlands of fate, a pilot might find himself the unfortunate victim of a manufacturing defect or another man’s carelessness. But these events are so extremely rare that they shouldn’t be considered a variable in the safety equation. I hate to be the reluctant assassin of luck—a concept held reverent by some in our aviation community—but too many pilots have flown without accident for far too long to say that they were just lucky. Pilots can do something to keep themselves safe in the air. Whatever that thing may be can surely be called the ideal flying behavior.

Now for the second assumption. Do pilots know the ideal or best behavior to use in any given situation aloft to keep themselves safe? I believe that most do.If we could visit the home library of a pilot who busted an airplane, I suspect you’d find that he was much more like you than you might think. He’d most likely have the same aviation books, the same aviation magazine subscriptions and the same aviation organization memberships as you do. Were we able to travel back in time and chat with this fellow before his final flight, I have little doubt that he’d convince you of his ability to fly safely, even on the day of the accident. If, on our same trip back in time, we could have this pilot fly with an FAA inspector named Mr. Herzsyur Pinkslip, I suspect that his performance would be sufficient to convince the feds that he’d be a safe pilot. That’s because most pilots have a pretty good idea of what it takes to behave safely in the air at any given time. The real issue here is why a pilot who knows how to be safe didn’t behave that way on accident day.

The final assumption. Are pilots capable of doing something to bring their actual behavior in line with the ideal pilot behavior appropriate for any given circumstance? Modern psychology says absolutely!

When a pilot crashes an airplane, it’s quite common to hear his friends say, “I can’t believe Bud crashed, he was such a good pilot.” If we accept the traditional definition of good, then we can’t help but wonder how a good pilot can smash an airplane. Given a pilot’s sovereign control over his machine, it’s likely that he crashed because of something he did or didn’t do. Ultimately, the logic here dissolves into the simple truth that while Bud may be a good pilot, he obviously wasn’t quite that good on the day he crashed. Why not?

On any given day a pilot is most safe when his attitude is appropriate for the circumstances involving his flight. The fact is, we don’t always comport ourselves in the most appropriate way when aloft. We may be a bit distracted, a bit anxious, a bit rushed, a bit aggressive and so on, all of which may not be appropriate for the given circumstances of flight. All of these mental dispositions are the result of an attitude, and it’s our attitude that determines the immediate trajectory of our behavior.

Attitudes are mental schemes that influence how we act in the short term. Unfortunately, attitudes are often easy to influence and quick to change, and they frequently do so without our being aware of the switch. For instance, one research study indicated that something as inconsequential as finding a dollar on a street corner could change someone’s dour attitude to a happy disposition. That’s why, when your instructor was about to solo you, he or she gave you a little speech to help align your present attitude with the one necessary to make your solo safer. On my first solo, my instructor said, “Remember, it will be lighter with me out of the plane and it will want to climb faster.” Unfortunately, I was so darn nervous I thought he said, “Revenge her, it grills my ladder, it will help extinguish the pain and you'll turn to crime faster.” That made me even more nervous. Personally, I would have preferred that he’d just given me a dollar and skipped the speech. That dollar would have made me happy.

Several years ago, two airplanes collided in the practice area over the costal waters of Southern California When the instructor of one airplane entered the practice area that morning, his attitude most likely influenced him to maintain sufficient vigilance in seeing and avoiding traffic. Then something happened to change his mental disposition. Perhaps he thought it necessary to focus more attention on his student than looking for traffic. Just suppose, however, that he took a moment for self-reflection and thought, “I’m in the practice area, one of the busiest areas in the entire nation, so I better pay more attention to what’s happening outside this cockpit.” Had he done that, he might have immediately changed his attitude and resumed scanning for traffic. Changing his attitude would have led him to mimic the behavior that an ideal pilot would demonstrate when operating in similar high-traffic circumstances. I have little doubt this unfortunate instructor would choose to be more vigilant for traffic were he given another chance to do so.

The main reason a pilot, even a more experienced one, crashes an airplane on any given day has more to do with his attitude than anything else. Even those people we call good pilots are only as safe as their ability to choose the right attitude for any given circumstance. The sad fact is that not every pilot makes this choice—and it is a matter of pilot choice. Now you know how it’s possible for a less experienced pilot to fly more safely than someone with more experience on any given day.

Doesn’t experience count for something? You bet it does. An experienced pilot is more likely to choose the right attitude for any given condition of flight, but not always because he makes a conscious choice to do so. Sure, he can catch himself with a less-than-helpful attitude and change it. All of us can do that. Experience pays off in that it biases a pilot towards having the proper attitude for any given circumstance by reinforcing a set of values, values forged through many long years of practical aviation education. While attitudes influence our actions in the short term, values represent the fixed star by which our behavior is steered in the long term. If you value good flight preparation, well maintained equipment, wise counsel and investing your money in proficiency training, then you’re most likely to have the right attitude most of the time.

If you’re a pilot without much experience, find comfort in knowing that your safety is greatly influenced by the attitudes you choose for any given circumstance of flight. The aviation version of common sense suggests you already know what these attitudes are and psychology tells us you can choose to change yours as you see fit. When you hear about an experienced pilot crumpling an airplane, it’s a good bet that he didn’t encounter a problem that would have easily overwhelmed a less experienced aviator. Instead, he was most likely the victim of a human frailty that affects each and every one of us. He didn’t monitor himself sufficiently to ensure that his attitude was appropriate for the given circumstances of flight. Don’t let the same happen to you.