Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many air accidents in the UK in the last five years arose from (a) pilot error and (b) mechanical breakdown.

Since July 2009 there have been 61 accidents investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in the UK involving public transport aircraft. Of these around 70 per cent were as a result of operational causal factors (human factors) and around 30 per cent were as a result of technical causal factors. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch does not attribute any causes to pilot error as they are explicitly required not to apportion blame or liability.