This is one of the sadder reasons why scheduled aviation is so safe. When flying planes is your job, why would you ever push your luck? I feel so tired, that storm looks pretty nasty, or the maintenance guy seemed like he had no idea why it's doing that - fuck it, we're not going, get the airline to put you on another plane if there is one, otherwise get them to pay for your hotel, I'm not flying anywhere today.

One safeguard that is needed, and I believe is provided even in the US - is a strong union to ensure that "Because I'll get fired unless we go" isn't the answer. People in safety critical roles must be protected so that "No" is always an option for them.

For private pilots, reasons to push your luck sneak over from real life. To get home before the twins are asleep. To be back in time for work tomorrow. So that I don't miss Trisha's wedding. Because the replacement was very expensive and I can't afford it right now. The fuel prices are lower back home, we'll fill up there.

My CFI said "graveyards are full of people the world couldn't do without, it can wait a day" - important to remember for many things, if you start pushing your luck it'll eventually push back.

“NTSB investigators usually wear sunglasses.”

They will be investigating your weather accident in the sunshine, meaning you could just wait a short while and fly in that good weather rather than crashing today.

"The problem with scud running is it often works" - this is really important because if dangerous things killed everyone who tried them, nobody would try them anymore.

But if you put yourself in a precarious position, eventually it will catch up to you, and you HAVE to force yourself to avoid those positions, no matter how tempting.

“We can wait and get there late, or leave now and it’ll take the rest of our lives to get there…”

"Wait and late or now and plow" was mine :)

I wonder if CFIs could basically be replaced by ChatGPT making pithy statements about "don't fly into weather you idiots". Probably too polite, though.