When Airlines Bend the Truth

Friday, August 27, 2010

My neighbor is flying to Europe, and is apprehensive about the flight.

We discuss safety, especially the figures published by airlines that boast the low number of deaths per million-passenger-miles flown.

Who cares?

I consider planes to be quite safe when they are traveling at 600 mph at 30,000 feet or so.

I consider planes to be quite safe when they sitting dead-still on the tarmac alongside a terminal building.

Planes are designed to be really good at flying, and like most chunks of metal, they are especially good at sitting still.

It’s the transitions between the two states that worries me, the transitions known as “take-off” and “landing”.

I bet that the statistics of “deaths-per-takeoff/landing” look a great deal worse than those of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown”.

I invited my neighbor, and I invite you, to study the news stories of the next ten airline crashes posted in your local newspaper.

How many occurred during take-off or landing? How many occurred at 30,000 feet (e.g. a bomb explosion or similar?).

I thought so.

Now, use some basic mathematics to transform those figures of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown” to “deaths-per-takeoff/landing”.

Enjoy your next flight.

But if, like me, the adrenalin pumps hard during take-off and landing, I know how you feel!

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