re: Bell is clearly not an engineering systems analyst as nearly every assumption he makes is wrong.
Yep, just as with the space shuttle. Safety is the goal of system engineering. But the problem is that unknown events tend to really mes sup your computer based prediction noderls in the real world, the key point Bell is making.
And if he wanted to be nasty he could have included the ME-163 which killed more pilots in accidents then in combat. And it wasn't a X-plane - it was a mass production rocket fighter.