improper maintenance, contaminated fuel, and similar non-pilot related causes. Before you ever takeoff, you must check for these things. > maintenance: do a

improper maintenance, contaminated fuel, and similar non-pilot related causes. Before you ever takeoff, you must check for these things. > maintenance: do a full walk-around of the aircraft, checking for any damage. You can't catch everything, but you should be thorough enough so that if anything sudden did happen, ie: your airplane got clipped by the fuel truck, that you would catch it. > contaminated fuel Aviation fuel is dyed blue. Before every flight we take a small sample of fuel from the bottom of each tank to ensure water hasn't contaminated our fuel. On highwing aircraft we also draw fuel from the fuel lines leading down into the engine. This is sufficient to almost completely rule out fuel contamination. I'm not saying that sudden accidents don't occur, merely that they are extremely remote. Even then, it is the responsibility of the pilot to plan accordingly and to further mitigate the consequences of mechanical breakdowns.