Wouldn't call it nonsense - if he still had the Bonanza, the engine failure would be half as likely. So equally likely it never would have happened. But yes, at altitude in cruise, of course we would all rather have a twin. But the cases where people are killed in singles or twins are almost never are in cruise with an engine failure. The forced landing isn't what you ever want, but it is in most cases survivable. And also incredibly rare.
The case when I don't want a light piston twin is heavy, just after V1, losing the engine, and deciding if I will wreck the plane straight ahead and probably live, or try to fly it. Which happens to be when a huge number of fatalities occur. And I have never heard many stories from people that have successfully flown it, as you usually read about them in NTSB reports. And I don't think most multi pilots do a very good job computing detailed enough performance numbers in light aircraft to make that decision - it would take me an hour for every departure - and I wouldn't actually do a thorough enough job, either.
It is a lot more than 1% of the time. At MGTOW, most of the time that light twin, in warm weather, will be a very uncontrollable single looking for a place to land. It would be a much safer glider looking for a place to land.
Sure, 90% of the flight at altitude, a second engine is fantastic to have. But very few accidents actually happen in cruise.
Put it this way - if you had a choice of two cars, one that was 1% less likely to kill you due to a faulty airbag, but was 4 times more likely to kill you because of the gas tank exploding, which would you say is better?
For the record, I have no problem with multiengine aircraft. If I could afford to operate one, I would probably buy one. I'm not even multi rated. But the FAA makes me read all about the accidents they have to renew my CFI nonetheless. With sim time every six months, and computing detailed takeoff data, I absolutely do think they can be operated safely. But they aren't 737s and they aren't magically safer. They just have risks in different phases of flight. For twins, much more so from loss of control, which happens way too often in singles too.
