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by sokoloff 1865 days ago
It’s not incredibly rare. Around 2 in 5 midair mishaps result in no fatalities.

https://iflyamerica.org/midairs.asp

This one was incredibly lucky, especially for the Key Lime aircraft.

2 comments

Interesting - that's higher than I would have expected, but apparently explaind by most collisions being in the pattern or otherwise near an airport (makes sense now that I think about it.) At least in the pattern, for most of the time, everyone is going in approximately the same direction (even this case.)
My guess would be that only in the worst scenarios does a collision involve a full-impact. In most cases I would expect either or both pilots to be taking avoiding action so that you might get some more minor scrapes which allow you to limp home.