China Airliner crashes

[Exterous]

I find aircraft fine, when on them and they are moving.

But airports are a real pain in the balls.

Hence why I hate taking a plane anywhere.

I've often thought that surely the airport experience can be improved on the absolute sh!tshow it is.


[said as a now quite experienced (aka old ) aero engineer!]

Some are actually quite nice. But many have competing priorities with traveler experience often not being the top concern

 

[hal2kilo]

Surely it depends where you are traveling to? I'm pretty sure I'm safer walking the couple of miles to my friend's place than trying to do it by plane!

I always found air travel extremely stressful - it's the extent to which the risks are all entirely out of your control that makes it so. Not just the danger of crashing or hijacking, but far more mundane fears like losing your luggage or catching some nasty disease from the recirculated air, or your flight being massively delayed or diverted.

Last flight I ever took (a very long time ago) involved aborted (half-way-through) attempts to land at three different airports (due to awful weather) before finally managing to land at the other end of the country to where I was going, just as they were running out of fuel. Since then have managed to avoid ever flying anywhere.

I used to love to fly, until they set up security. No matter how I mentally prepared myself, it always causes major anxiety in me. Which typically results in things like leaving a single item behind, including cell phone. So much fun, fortunately, I realized I didn't have my cell right before I got on the train at Dulles, avoiding going through the whole nightmare again.

 

[Captante]

I'm old enough to recall flying actually being fun, including most of the experience in the airport.

Now I'm inclined to drive.

Its safer nowadays but in the 70's & 80's the whole experience of flying was one heck of a lot nicer. (Terminal amenities would be the one big exception)

 

[Dulanic]

Surely it depends where you are traveling to? I'm pretty sure I'm safer walking the couple of miles to my friend's place than trying to do it by plane!

I always found air travel extremely stressful - it's the extent to which the risks are all entirely out of your control that makes it so. Not just the danger of crashing or hijacking, but far more mundane fears like losing your luggage or catching some nasty disease from the recirculated air, or your flight being massively delayed or diverted.

Last flight I ever took (a very long time ago) involved aborted (half-way-through) attempts to land at three different airports (due to awful weather) before finally managing to land at the other end of the country to where I was going, just as they were running out of fuel. Since then have managed to avoid ever flying anywhere.

Nope, still safer to fly.

"Flying Is Still the Safest Way to Travel" https://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7?amp

I think you'd be more likely to die from accute liver failure from Tylenol lol... Maybe or not, but it would be close!

 

[Captante]

Nope, still safer to fly.

"Flying Is Still the Safest Way to Travel" https://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7?amp

I think you'd be more likely to die from accute liver failure from Tylenol lol... Maybe or not, but it would be close!

Flying would have to get pretty dang risky to even begin to approach the same chances of being killed in a car accident for a healthy adult American.

Approx 38000 people die in car accidents per year in the USA. (yes that's thousand!)

An additional 4.4 million are injured seriously enough to require medical attention. Road crashes are the leading cause of death in the U.S. for people aged 1-54.





Average worldwide annual deaths in commercial aircraft number in the hundreds.

 

[pmv]

Nope, still safer to fly.

"Flying Is Still the Safest Way to Travel" https://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7?amp

I think you'd be more likely to die from accute liver failure from Tylenol lol... Maybe or not, but it would be close!

Those stats make very little sense.

What's the point of the "lifetime risk" ones - that all depends on how often you use those modes of transport in your lifetime. I hardly ever fly, and never drive (never get into a car) so my lifetime risk of dying via those modes is zero, but that says nothing about the intrinsic level of risk in them.

And the claim on that page that "pedestrians were responsible for 80% of pedestrian-vehicle crashes" is completely absurd. As if such crashes could occur in the absence of motorised vehicles. It's the presence of the motorised vehicle that creates the danger (pedestrians dont kill each other by walking into each other), ergo the motorist is responsible for 100% of them. If they weren't there, operating dangerous machinary, the crash would not have happened.

That's like saying "unarmed people who get shot are responsible for 80% of fatal shootings".

 

[pmv]

Nope, still safer to fly.

"Flying Is Still the Safest Way to Travel" https://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7?amp

I think you'd be more likely to die from accute liver failure from Tylenol lol... Maybe or not, but it would be close!

The one thing those stats maybe get right, is that driving is more dangerous than flying (for both those inside and outside the vehicle). But that doesn't make flying safe.

And the difference is that with flying the risks are entirely out of the individual's control, to a much greater extent than driving. That lack of control is what makes flying stressful.

It's also irrelevant unless one's journey is long enough that flying is a practical method - and that itself suggests that maybe your country has too low a population density and maybe you need to allow a bit more inward migration.

 

[Fenixgoon]

The one thing those stats maybe get right, is that driving is more dangerous than flying (for both those inside and outside the vehicle). But that doesn't make flying safe.

And the difference is that with flying the risks are entirely out of the individual's control, to a much greater extent than driving. That lack of control is what makes flying stressful.

It's also irrelevant unless one's journey is long enough that flying is a practical method - and that itself suggests that maybe your country has too low a population density and maybe you need to allow a bit more inward migration.

Uh, yes it does make flying safe. That's the very definition of safety - a lower risk of injury or death.

Few things in this world are perfectly safe, as in 0% risk (you can die from drinking too much water, as an example). So it's really a matter of what level of risk in terms of probability and severity of consequences that you are willing to accept.

And people are pretty terrible evaluators of risk - we notably overestimate the likelihood of extreme events.

 

[pmv]

Uh, yes it does make flying safe. That's the very definition of safety - a lower risk of injury or death.

No, that's not the definition of safety. That's the definition of "safer". i.e. a relative quality. You need a better dictionary.

 

[brycejones]

Travel by scheduled air service is still the safest mode of travel in the US. Cars are orders of magnitude more dangerous.

Deaths by Transportation Mode - Injury Facts

Overall, passenger transportation incidents account for about one out of seven preventable injury-related deaths.

injuryfacts.nsc.org

 

[Pohemi]

Travel by scheduled air service is still the safest mode of travel in the US. Cars are orders of magnitude more dangerous.

Deaths by Transportation Mode - Injury Facts

Overall, passenger transportation incidents account for about one out of seven preventable injury-related deaths.

injuryfacts.nsc.org

It's probably a GOOD thing we haven't mass-produced flying cars like they envisioned in the 1950s, lol. Imagine how dangerous those would be?

 

[Fenixgoon]

It's probably a GOOD thing we haven't mass-produced flying cars like they envisioned in the 1950s, lol. Imagine how dangerous those would be?

It'd bea fucking nightmare. Flying is safe because of rigorous requirements on training, maintenance, and performance

 

[Muse]

I used to love to fly, until they set up security. No matter how I mentally prepared myself, it always causes major anxiety in me. Which typically results in things like leaving a single item behind, including cell phone. So much fun, fortunately, I realized I didn't have my cell right before I got on the train at Dulles, avoiding going through the whole nightmare again.

I've done pretty OK at airports. Did lose one cheap but meaningful to me item left in a tray.

My boo was leaving one of my bags on the Long Island Railroad when I visited NYC. Eventually I got it back, must have been 2 months later? Had my camera in it, etc.

Flying is something I don't do a whole lot but I don't have anxiety. The security? I try not to let anything bother me. Travel is

It's probably a GOOD thing we haven't mass-produced flying cars like they envisioned in the 1950s, lol. Imagine how dangerous those would be?

I did that mental exercise way back when people started dreaming about those and knew it was never going to happen.

 

[Paratus]

The one thing those stats maybe get right, is that driving is more dangerous than flying (for both those inside and outside the vehicle). But that doesn't make flying safe.

And the difference is that with flying the risks are entirely out of the individual's control, to a much greater extent than driving. That lack of control is what makes flying stressful.

It's also irrelevant unless one's journey is long enough that flying is a practical method - and that itself suggests that maybe your country has too low a population density and maybe you need to allow a bit more inward migration.

By any recognized method of hazard analysis and probabilistic risk analysis commercial aviation (generically) is safe.

 

[Muse]

By any recognized method of hazard analysis and probabilistic risk analysis commercial aviation (generically) is safe.

As long as your pilot isn't suicidal.

Edit: I do not get nervous on planes.