Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I bet some of that has to do with irresponsible drivers, ie teens, etc.
Texting while driving and/or other distracted driving.
DUI driving.
There are alos many more cars on the road compared to airplanes at any given time so that increases y our chances.
Unfortunately too many of the airline crashes in the last 10 or so years have been catastrophic.
The planes literally fell out of the air.
Swiss Air.
TWA.
Air France.
Egypt Air.
The two recent Malaysian planes.
Alaska Air.
Valuejet.
The one that crashed into a house near Buffalo.
The one that crashed over New York City.
I'd have to get the flight numbers but none of these had a chance for survivors.
Just live your life... If it is your time to go, its just your time.
You have a far greater chance of something going wrong on a 10hr drive from Atlanta to Miami than in a 1.5 hr flight.
When driving you can get tired and drive off the road, have to deal with other tired drivers and truckers, people texting, many wreckless drivers tailgating and cutting you off, debris in the road, or a random deer,
Ill take 1.5 hrs crammed in the back fo coach before I do another 8-10 hr drive again.
You might not stand a chance in a plane crash on takeoff or it falling out the sky as rare as that happens, but you are pretty much dead if you are tboned in a automobile @ 45mph and up, head on collision @ 45mph and up, or a run in with a big rig at high speed.
Although It may be, what's the likelihood of you surving a plane crash vs car crash. I dont know about you but I'd MUCH rather be on the ground in the event of engine or mechanical failure rather than 30,000 feet in the air over the mid atlantic.
Statistically speaking, yes air travel is safer than traveling by car, but what's the survival rate regarding accidents for both modes of transportation?
One way to look at this is: "What are your odds of surviving a cross-country trip from NY to LA?" Flying would win hands down. Some of the reason being, all the people involved in managing, servicing and flying the plane are well trained and certified professionals. Also, all of the flight-critical systems in a commercial aircraft are redundant - if one part fails another will take over the function & keep the plane in the air.
If autos had the same level of safety, integrity and redundancy as aircraft and if drivers had a similar level of competency as pilots there would be far fewer car crashes and fatalities. Of course cars would cost 2 to 3 times more than they do now and far fewer people would be allowed to drive. Of course, self-driving cars are on the way so things may change in the next 10 - 20 years.
Statistically speaking, yes air travel is safer than traveling by car, but what's the survival rate regarding accidents for both modes of transportation?
The numbers vary from year to year, but in the USA roughly 30,000 accidents on average every day and 100 people per day die.
You would have to go through those 30K accidents and use some criteria to leave out the fender benders and slow speed accidents. I don't think it is fair to say 1 death per 300 accidents, unless you could come up with some definition that was more realistic to compare to incidents on an airline.
But your basic point is easily understood, that there are much fewer accidents in the air with no consequences.
You guys would be surprised how often things actually do go wrong. An engine needs to be shut down, a tire blows out etc.. Guess what. Just like in a car three are none events in airplanes too. These types of events rarely make the news.
Flying on an airliner is safer than driving, that's a fact there is no way around it. The I rather be on the ground when things go wrong argument is not logically sound as it just ignores the facts.
It doesn't matter if you have a higher chance of surviving the actual car crash vs. the plane crash. Plane issues still happen so many times less as to ensure you have a higher likelihood of survival travelling by air anyways.
It doesn't matter if you hate the phrase, it still applies.
I'd rather something go wrong when I'm grounded in my car though.
Lets take these 2 scenarios.
1. I'm in my car and I catch a flat. I either pull off and change it myself or call for assistance and have someone else do it.
2. I'm in a plane and upon decending the pilot discovers the landing gear isnt opening up in which case YOU'RE TOTALLY SCREWED!!! Now there are procedures for such a thing but they are very risky which can lead to a crash/explosion/etc upon landing.
Now I'm not against air travel as I travel by air 3-4 times per year. I just don't agree with the entire notion that its the safest form of travel. Statistically there are faaar fewer plane crashes but when a plane does crash it usually comes with everyone on board dying.
I get what you are saying... When you think of a car crash you tend to think of most people coming through alive. I mean most of us have been in some sort of fender bender at one time or another. But If you don't have a good friend or relative that has been killed in a car accident, then you are either young or lucky. Many people as they hit middle age have a good friend or relative that was killed by a car accident.
On the other hand, aviation accidents are very rare. I think part of what you are thinking about is the fear factor that could or would be going on if a plane broke up in mid air due to a collision.
The good news is that happens so rarely now. But really the reason I wrote was that I too thought that most aircraft accidents would result in fatalities. That's simply not true. It just happens that those make the news and headlines. Most accidents are caused by the actions of the pilot... plane (pun) and simple. I do not like the term pilot error, because it assumes that given the same situation, an average crew with similar experience levels would not error. Anyway, I'll call it pilot error to keep this shot.
Pilot error occurs at the most saturating times in the aircraft which are takeoff and landing. Much of the time weather and some sort of malfunction or distraction causes them to lose focus and error. Bottom line, while there are many bumps and bruises, most of the time everyone gets out o.k.
Even some of the forced landings of some of the larger planes in fields have very high survivability rates, even though when you look at it you would think no one could survive that.
The truth is most people do survive aircraft accidents.
Former Certified Aircraft Accident Investigator
Former Fighter and Commercial Pilot
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
