I'd venture a guess that small planes don't get the maintenance that the big airliners get. Also, the small plane pilots do get drunk and stoned while up there. The engines in the small planes are piston-driven reciprocating engines driving propellers. They can be fairly old. I have to check a lot of connectors, wires and sensors on my newer car engines. The older engines have a lot less of that to go wrong. But, they do die more often because they use more mechanical parts. The points, distributor, cap, rotor, all could be a single point failure that would bring the motor to a stop.
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