Risk of Single Engine and/or One Piloted Planes

We have friends who just lost one of their planes- a Cirrus. It is a one engine, one pilot plane and their pilot crashed and was killed in Dayton, Ohio several weeks ago. Our friends now have a family and company rule- no more flying on single engine and/or one pilot planes period. They are coming to St. Barth next Feb. and have eliminated Puerto Rico- Tradewinds as an option because the Pilatus is a single engine plane.
The Cirrus is probably the safest single engine plane around today but when the engine failed a couple of weeks ago, the plane was too low to use it's parachute and crashed. Our friends will fly their two engine two piloted jet to either St. Maarten or Anguilla. We told them both islands have two engine plane connections to SBH.
Would appreciate others' thought on putting their family and loved ones on single engine and/or one piloted planes vs. two or more engines and/or two piloted planes. We know the Pilatus company like the Cirrus company says they are safe but hey 'stuff' happens!

One major difference between a single-engine Cirrus and an single-engine Pilatus (or Caravan) is the type of engine.

The Cirrus has a piston engine: the Continental IO-550.
The Pilatus and the Caravan have a turbine engine: the Pratt & Whitney PT6, one of the most reliable engines in the world.

The likelihood of an engine failure on a piston engine is much higher than on a turbine engine.

It's probably much safer to fly on a Pilatus or Caravan than on a fully loaded Britten Norman Islander BN 2 (typical twin piston engine flown between St Maarten or Anguilla and SBH), as in case of engine failure, the remaining engine would struggle to keep the airplane in the air.

The critical phase of flight being the take-off on a no wind / hot and humid day / from SBH, with full load.

Now, the safest way to do this is to fly the De Havilland Twin-Otter, which is a twin turbine engine aircraft, flown by Winair. Out of St Maarten (SXM).

Number of pilots:

Only Winair and Tradewind Aviation provide two pilots on every flight. All the others are single-pilot operated. Though it is possible to request a second pilot on some of the charter companies (with extra $$).

islander said:

Now, the safest way to do this is to fly the De Havilland Twin-Otter, which is a twin turbine engine aircraft, flown by Winair.

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How many of those do they have?

Can you book a flight specifically on that plane or is it the luck of the draw?

Winair only uses the Twin-Otter nowadays (they got rid of their Britten Norman Islanders). So if you book a flight on Winair, you are guaranteed to fly on the safest airplane there is to get to SBH. It does not have the fancy interiors of the Pilatus though.... But I guess everyone has different priorities...:up:

That's why we've always flown Winair vs St Barth Commuter.

Wow!- Now we know even though it may be more expensive, we will always book Win Air in the future. We were debating switching to St. Barth Commuter but now we clearly understand the advantages of the Twin Otter. 10 minutes each way in the safest airplane is worth the piece of mind. Thanks for the info.

You all are worry warts, IMHO.....

PIRATE40 said:

You all are worry warts, IMHO.....

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:up:

At the risk of stressing some people by the "message drift" inherent in this note, I'd like to observe how odd "worry wart" is as an expression . . . could the French have something comparable? It's, of course, a phrase that we hear from childhood, but how could it have developed?

solve the problem ... take the ferry

When I took my first flight my Dad took me aside and explained I should not fret too much. His words of wisdom included,"when your number's up, your number's up!" Then he added in a softer voice,"the trick is not to fly on somebody else's number."

Safe travels friends!

amyb said:

"when your number's up, your number's up!"

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Love it amyb!

Maybe I should try that tomorrow.... with a P.A to my 200 passengers in the back, I believe the best time would be just before take off....! What do you think?

lol :triumphant:

Great wisdom, Amy!
When I was 16, it was 1968, and my dad piloted a Beechcraft Bonanza , with my 18 yr old brother as his co- pilot, and my mom and I in the back. We flew from Albany, NY to Fresno, California. Now I guess I know why my mom seemed so nervous...the older I get , the more nervous I become. But, I still love flying; even more so in the smaller planes. An aside ....
We were near El Centro, Ca. When we were dangerously low on fuel, so we landed on an airstrip that turned out to be an un marked Blue Angel airstrip. All I can remember is that they rushed out , said a few words to my dad, fueled us up, and we were on our way.
A few weeks later, when we began our flight back home.....we flew over the base; but this time it was painted in huge white and blue lettering : BLUE ANGELS ......we all laughed.

We are going to be on a single engine Pilatus tomorrow afternoon and feel very confident that we will arrive safe and sound....

Wishing you a safe trip.

In college Army ROTC it was a group exercise to do a skydiving trip at a small airport with grass runways an hour from the university. We practiced jumping down from a 12' tower into wood chips, learned how to control the chute (it was supposed to open automatically from a clip attached to a static line) and rolling as we landed. As we boarded the tired looking aircraft with scratched, faded paint and no door or seats, the jumpmaster joked to us, myself included, who were pretty scarred: "we've had 20,000 jumps here and just one fatality, but we're just about due for one", no one laughed along with him.

SBC since '95 no accidents----or Winair either from 60's....pretty good odds...

No guarantees, though: last crash on St Barth----an Air Carib: 2 pilot, Twin Otter in 2001, what appears to have been a perfectly good aircraft flown in to the hillside near Mayas.

islander said:

…
The Pilatus and the Caravan have a turbine engine: the Pratt & Whitney PT6, one of the most reliable engines in the world.
…

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And the De Havilland Twin-Otter is powered by two PT6 engines! My dad used to refer to the Otter as a air-Jeep. Built for rugged use, abundance of power, and reliability, but comfort not so much. Interesting that so many of the aircraft to SBH use the same PT6 turbine engine power.

I had a few business visits to Pratt & Whitney Canada's factory outside Montreal where the PT6 is manufactured. In an age of high speed manufacturing and robotic assembly most jet engines are built the old fashioned way. Assembled by hand, High skilled labor, extremely clean, orderly processes with obsessive quality control. It was a great experience to see.

I'll never worry about flying in any PT6 powered plane. But I still have a soft spot for the Twin-Otter.

= No guarantees, though: last crash on St Barth----an Air Carib: 2 pilot, Twin Otter in 2001, what appears to have been a perfectly good aircraft flown in to the hillside near Mayas.

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This is about the reliability of the engine (i.e. the PT6), not the pilot skills.

Airplanes crash. That's a fact. Including high-tech airplanes such as the Boeing 777's (Malaysia MH370), or Airbus 330's (Air France AF447)....Both known as modern & reliable airplanes.

Unfortunately 70% of air crashes are still due to pilot error, including the one of Air Caraibes Twin-Otter in 2001. Give the pilots the best equipment there is, they'll still manage to crash!

The pilot on that particular flight engaged the props in "beta position" during the approach. A bad habit used by some pilots to increase drag / reducing speed, a technique (not recommended by the manufacturer) helping for short fields landings.

Unfortunately with an engine failure, it is almost impossible to keep an airplane in the air when the live engine's prop is in beta position. That's exactly what happened on the TX flight 1501. A major piloting error that killed all passengers and crew (R.I.P).

In Saudi Arabia, every landing clearance issued by ATC is accompanied with a "Insha'Allah".... meaning "God willing". In other words, God will decide if the landing will be successful or not.

I do not believe in destiny when flying. I can't, as a pilot myself. I believe in pilot training, in reliability of engines and airplanes, and statistics. Modern aviation is about: train for the worse, and avoid it. Destiny and god have nothing to do with it.

Now back to topic, the chance of having an engine failure on a twin piston-engine aircraft is higher than on a single engine turbo-prop aircraft. The chance of having an engine failure on a twin turbo-prop aircraft is higher than on a single engine turbo-prop aircraft (twice the chance in fact).

The chance to get out of this kind of incident without any consequence (compared to all other types) is much higher on a twin turbine aircraft. Not me saying, the statistics saying. There is a reason why all modern airliners are equipped with twin-jet engines (the same technology used for turbo-props).

I am guessing that you are still way more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport, or in a car accident on SBH than on a single engine, single pilot plane. I wonder how many people have died in car accidents in SBH since that 2001 crash?

waynek said:

I am guessing that you are still way more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport, or in a car accident on SBH than on a single engine, single pilot plane. I wonder how many people have died in car accidents in SBH since that 2001 crash?

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You're right. Aviation is the safest mode of transportation (statistics wise). But that's not the point, nor the question raised.