Marybeth

There has been yet another plane crash, this time in Russia. That makes 9 crashes in 9 weeks. You still think flying is the safest way to travel? Hah!

Jim

Marybeth, read the newspaper every now and then. Planes crash all the time in Russia. Poor maintenance and ancient aircraft don't make for a good mix.

U.S. airlines ARE the safest way to go.

Grasshopper

Marybeth, there have been 1,425,373 car crashes in 9 weeks. You still think you want to get into your car? Hah!

Anyone looking for a reason not to do something will find it. Guess what, you don't need a reason... just don't fly!

xcomx

Nice to accuse Russia of having poor maintenance and ancient aircraft. Did I miss something? Was that recent accident where the tail fell off an Aeroflot?

Gail

Spent a month in Russia in the late 70's before the communists fell- We were amazed on an Aeroflot flight at the orderly manner in which the passengers deplaned- Row by row the passengers got up and filed out instead of everyone jumping up at once. We asked the stewardess how they were able to get people to do this. She explained, "It's simple. if they don't the plane will fall over."

L

Please do NOT dissuade Marybeth from her new safety issue ... she's been trashing DC for the past day, and we would enjoy some relief. Evidently she's interested in announcing her views, but tends away from any discussion. Ciao

Marybeth

This board seems to discourage discussion especially if it goes against the company line. I posted yesterday how airlines were once the safest way to travel until September 11, but the person in charge of this forum decided that my views were better deleted. I never said anything bad about D.C.

L

Whoops, you're right, Marybeth. Apologies!! That was Kathleen. I'll go stand in the corner for an hour, okay? Ciao

cj

Igonore my NICE post to you. I did not see this one until after the fact. If I knew I was responding to a gloom and doom person who wants to report every bad thing that happens, I would have never have shared my HAPPY holiday with you. By the way, I am going to Florida for Christmas. I will look for another plane crash that you may post and remind myself to be afraid of flying. Yeah, sure.

Bboy

Aeroflot is much improved from the way it was 15 years ago. There are still some old planes in service, but they have mostly been inherited by the non-Russian republics. You may well be taking your life in your hands flying some unheard-of airline around Kyrgyzstan or Moldova, but really, Aeroflot would be one of your best options, if it were available.

I can't believe someone actually wrote "U.S. airlines ARE the safest way to go." !!! I live in the US and I have no problem at all getting on a European airline and flying to Europe - but I would think ten times about flying a US airline domestically, or non-code share/with a domestic stopover. (Not that I think it's any worse than six months ago, but that isn't saying much!)

Jim

The plane in question was a chartered Ilyushin IL-18. These planes can be very old as the type entered service in 1957.

Dottie

Some of you may not be familiar with
http://airsafe.com/ It lists the Airlines safety records since, I think, 1970. Pull the the Web site and go to fatel events and look up their records. USA, Canada, Europe etc.

Sam

CNN reported today that one of the major consumer safety groups (National Safety Council or something like that) estimates 500 people will die on the U.S. roadways by next week, with another 20,000 seriously injured.

500! This is more than died in all 4 hikacked planes. More than on the ill-fated AA flight. (Maybe more than all five of those flights, but I can't recall specific numbers...)

Lucky Lindy

I wonder how much Marybeth travelled BEFORE 9/11.

I don't think I'd want to trade my frequent flyer accounts with hers.

The only flying I won't do, are the short regional flights. Door to door, including the extra security, it's easier to drive the short hauls.

With airfares from the East Coast to Europe at around $225 or so , Round trip, now is the time to fly.

Besides, as has been proven in the last several months, not being in the plane, doesn't mean you can't die in a plane crash

lets see now

a) you get into a car have and accident, hit another car, you are killed or they are killed or both.

b) you get in a car fall asleep hit a house and you get killed and the people in the house are killed

c) you get in a plane and the wing comes off and kills the people down below and the people under the plane.

I would say that C is the least thing to happen. Stay home and drive your car and hope that a or b does not happen. Happy Holiday's anyway.

Caleb

Ive read many articles dealing with air travel going back almost five years ago that stated that the sky is getting so crowded with passenger planes and the air control systems strain more and more to keep up that we can expect if this continues a crash a week. Even then, it would still be the safest way to travel.

SeeSallyFly

Im 46...didnt I as a kid and everyone else in my class expect by now that we would all be FLYING our cars to work? What..would we expect that noone would collide? None of our flying cars would malfunction? It would all be some idealic Worlds Fair exhibit made reality? The poster above is correct. Accidents will happen more and more because its getting so common to fly!

Sam's Tutor

Samiamnot you are asking the wrong question.
The appropriate question is "What is the safest way to travel PER MILE".
Whether or not you spend 1000 hours per annum in your car commuting to work is irrelevant....you can't fly to the office so you have no choice but to drive (or take the train etc).
But you can't drive to Hawaii, either.
Apples to apples: "What's the safest way to get from NYC to SF". And you can then factor in 'quality of life' considerations as well....the inconvenience of driving and fatigue once you arrive are negative factors, as is the value of the time lost driving vs. flying.

Any way you slice it: flying is superior to driving (unless the only consideration is cost).

Rosemary

Whatever the statistics are or are not about flying, I still feel safer in a plane, even in the past 2 months, than I do driving a car around the DC/Northern Virginia area every day.

My husband and saw two really nasty car accidents yesterday (one each) - in both cases we thought about the people involved and how they're now going to be spending Thanksgiving. Makes you think.

Leone

The first measure safety professionals use to express motor vehicle travel safety is the number of fatalities per 100 million miles of vehicle travel, or VMT. The most recently available rate is 1.6 deaths per 100M VMT in calendar year 2000 ... which is an INCREASE over the 1.5 rate for year 1999. The number of deaths was also up by about 200, while the number of injuries declined very slightly. If you can locate a comparable measure for air travel, grab it for comparison purposes. Another traditional measure is the deaths per day ... there was an average of 115 people killed in motor vehicle crashes each and every day in year 2000 ... no holidays for traffic death. That of course is roughly equivalent to one 737 crashing fully loaded each and every day, with everybody onboard killed. No wonder pilots used to say upon landing that the most dangerous phase of each passenger's trip was about to commence. Flying vs. driving ... what a no-brainer decision. Were they all that easy to make. Ciao