Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#101

Post by FabHK » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:01 PM UTC

schmookeeg wrote: post #87

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #83

Sad for this. I am wondering: what's the data on how safe, or unsafe, "private" planes are, e.g. compared to commercial jets?

You'll want the McSpadden report (formerly the Nall report) here [1] Pay attention to the accidents per 100,000 hours in commercial vs non-commercial fixed wing. Commercial is about 10-40x safer. [1] https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institut...

Note that here „commercial“ is commercial general aviation (so, not military and not scheduled airliners). Airliners are far safer still.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#102

Post by FabHK » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:06 PM UTC

wafflemaker wrote: post #98

BoredPositron wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From here https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/cZE1TCwb2B June 8: A Gulfstream G200 crashed while landing at La Romana International in the DR, it was on the way to pick up former MLB player Yadier Molina, but it had to make an emergency landing. Both pilots, the only occupants, died. June 10: A Pakistan Army Aviation Mi-17 helicopter crashed near Muzaffarabad. All 22 on board perished. June 11: Turkish Airlines Fligh…

Looks like a lot. Is it always like that, or were the last two weeks really that special? One thing that sticks out is that GA (small), but also military, planes' accidents usually end with deaths and big planes accidents usually end with everything being fine.

That might be an instance of Berkson‘s paradox.

You’ll hear about deadly small plane accidents, and about accidents of large planes, but are unlikely to hear about harmless accidents with small planes. Just not interesting. But they happen all the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkson%27s_paradox

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#103

Post by serf » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:25 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #92

lostlogin wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chuck Yeager seemed pretty bold and died at 96. Yay, one old bold pilot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager

If you think you have the skill and luck of Chuck Yeager, by all means, go fly boldly. One of my old coworkers was a retired navy captain who used to be an instructor at Top Gun and had hundreds of night carrier landings. He told me that he'd have to be forced at gunpoint to fly on a small general aviation airplane, it's just too dangerous.

>One of my old coworkers was a retired navy captain who used to be an instructor at Top Gun and had hundreds of night carrier landings. He told me that he'd have to be forced at gunpoint to fly on a small general aviation airplane, it's just too dangerous.

it's just not that simple.

Some of the smallest GA craft are the safest by the numbers until you group them into the same category as famously sophisticated or hard to maintain models.

if it were me i'd be worried about the bigger GA planes. More to go wrong, more to distract the pilot, more reliance on the pilot being able to manage multiple engines and special equipment, more difficult take-offs, etc.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#104

Post by wolvoleo » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:26 PM UTC

Insanity wrote: post #24

I briefly entertained flying planes as a hobby. I live next to a small-ish local airfield and a coworker of mine got his license there. Then I learned more about it, and there's way to many accidents like these for me to be comfortable with the risk I'd be taking. I have no issue with flying commercial planes, but I guess I don't trust myself _and_ the smaller planes enough to do this. RIP Claude, horrible way to die…

Well it's not the safest thing but you control most of that. You decide whether to take off or not, what weather you accept, whether to do a proper walkaround.

Usually accidents are due to people taking too many risks. Yes it can happen but you can prevent a lot by being a stickler for safety.

And you can put down a GA aircraft in a field easily. When I flew gliders they always taught us to constantly evaluate every field you see as a potential landing site. This behaviour is not focused on enough for powered flying IMO. My instructor would suddenly put his hands over my eyes and say "emergency, where are you putting down right now?" And not having a good answer would have you off the solo list for a week or so. It really helped keeping this in the back of the mind. I've not seen that in powered flying at all.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#105

Post by wolvoleo » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:30 PM UTC

gpm wrote: post #41

miketery wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my glider license at 16 and private at 17. Majority of accidents are human error. Though yes an accident with a plane is much costlier than one with a car. I encourage you to read NTSB accident reports. The work the investigators do and the reports they assemble are unparalleled. There are also good parallels to complex systems in general.

It seems like unjustifiable hubris to assume that I'm significantly less susceptible to human error than the average person that decides to become a pilot.

Most human error happens because pilots knowingly ignore safety. "Get-there-itis" for example. You really wanna get home but the weather is an edge case. If you were flying for fun you would stay on the ground but you convince yourself it's not that bad. That kinda thing. Or an engine running a bit rough, "but it's probably ok I'll have it checked next week".

What you need is discipline to say no. That's the root cause of most of these errors. And yes that can be learned.

Every flying club has a few of these people that are talked about in hushed tones at the end of the day when the beers come out. And almost never was the problem their flying skill.

Even if it was it's usually something preventable too. Trying to fix an approach when going around would have been the clear choice. Letting mistakes pile up and not restarting from a known safe position.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#106

Post by crote » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:49 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #50

Insanity wrote: post #24

I briefly entertained flying planes as a hobby. I live next to a small-ish local airfield and a coworker of mine got his license there. Then I learned more about it, and there's way to many accidents like these for me to be comfortable with the risk I'd be taking. I have no issue with flying commercial planes, but I guess I don't trust myself _and_ the smaller planes enough to do this. RIP Claude, horrible way to die…

I had a similar decision to make (pilot or motorbike) and the fact that 60%+ of aviation deaths are pilot error and something like 60%+ of motorcycle crashes are NOT the rider's fault - led me to be a pilot. At least then I can try to make good decisions, e.g, DO NOT FLY INTO WEATHER.

The big difference is that aviation doesn't have a pause button. If weather gets bad on the road you can just pull over at basically any time. But if you're flying you have to keep flying until you are able to land.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#107

Post by crote » Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 11:53 PM UTC

schmookeeg wrote: post #85

deadbabe wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stakes get even higher if you fly a plane with your entire family in it. One bad error and you will almost certainly have killed them all.

A "bad error" in a minivan does this too. The "bad error" in the plane would be flying into a thunderstorm. I equate this gobsmackingly bad judgement with driving a minivan off of a cliff.

Bad weather can develop around you, and when flying you can't just pull over and wait for it to pass. A cliff doesn't suddenly develop in front of your minivan.

A relatively minor error can quickly develop into a situation well beyond your control, without any way out of it. That kind of fatal escalation is pretty much impossible with road vehicles.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#108

Post by crote » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 12:04 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #105

gpm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like unjustifiable hubris to assume that I'm significantly less susceptible to human error than the average person that decides to become a pilot.

Most human error happens because pilots knowingly ignore safety. "Get-there-itis" for example. You really wanna get home but the weather is an edge case. If you were flying for fun you would stay on the ground but you convince yourself it's not that bad. That kinda thing. Or an engine running a bit rough, "but it's probably ok I'll have it checked next week". What you need is discipline to say no. That's the root cau…

But as they already said: unjustifiable hubris to assume it can't happen to you.

Humans make mistakes all. the. time., and you're a human. It is pretty much guaranteed that you are making the exact same kind of mistakes in your day-to-day life. It just doesn't kill you because a broken car merely leaves you stranded and a broken pipe in your home merely causes some financial damage.

Do the same with flying and you'll crash so you'll die. In my opinion private planes should be treated like they are actively trying to kill you, and it is only a matter of time before you will become complacent and make a mistake.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#109

Post by cucumber3732842 » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 12:47 AM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #104

Insanity wrote: post #24

I briefly entertained flying planes as a hobby. I live next to a small-ish local airfield and a coworker of mine got his license there. Then I learned more about it, and there's way to many accidents like these for me to be comfortable with the risk I'd be taking. I have no issue with flying commercial planes, but I guess I don't trust myself _and_ the smaller planes enough to do this. RIP Claude, horrible way to die…

Well it's not the safest thing but you control most of that. You decide whether to take off or not, what weather you accept, whether to do a proper walkaround. Usually accidents are due to people taking too many risks. Yes it can happen but you can prevent a lot by being a stickler for safety. And you can put down a GA aircraft in a field easily. When I flew gliders they always taught us to constantly evaluate every…

It's a safe hobby if you want to fly a plane.

It's not a safe hobby if you want to have fun flying the plane.

It's like the difference between sports car enthusiasts who are proud of how long their tires and brakes last vs the ones who are proud of how short they last.

Re: Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot has died in a plane crash

#110

Post by cucumber3732842 » Sun, Jun 21, 2026, 12:50 AM UTC

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #47

gpm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like unjustifiable hubris to assume that I'm significantly less susceptible to human error than the average person that decides to become a pilot.

If you're even thinking about the danger, it's absolutely justifiable to believe you're above the average already. The average person has zero regard for their own safety; governments have to literally force people to wear seatbelts in cars or helmets on motorcycles because they won't do it without threat of financial penalty.

This strikes me as the kind of thing certain parts of the internet tell themselves to justify a feeling of superiority but probably isn't true.

The guy who lives a dangerous life and has a ton of near misses probably thinks about it a lot more than average but it's not gonna change his behavior so thinking about it really isn't worth anything.