Is the terror in the skies a bit overblown? The seemingly myriad of mid-air mishaps recently have made flying seem like playing Russian Roulette at 30,000 feet. Infamous recent examples have included the Alaska Airlines door disaster in March and Southwest Airlines’ near crash-landing just last week. However, experts have mixed opinions regarding whether it’s still safe to fly the friendly skies.
Some suggested that passengers — who have been canceling flights in massive numbers of late — are just being plane hysterical. “It’s the safest form of transportation ever designed by humankind,” John Cox, a former airline pilot who runs a safety consulting firm, told the New York Times . Many have declared that getting in a car is far more dangerous than boarding a commercial jetliner.
“When you arrive at the airport and step aboard the pressurized tube, that’s the safest part of the trip,” Anthony Brickhouse, a crash investigator and professor of aviation safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told CNN. “You were more at risk driving to the airport.” Indeed, in the last decade, only five people have died on commercial scheduled flights in the US, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, over a hundred people died a day on American roadways between 2003 and 2022. Experts have also pointed out that the lion’s share of mechanical mishaps are common and often minor. “Little small components will always start to burn out or break,” said Amy Pritchett, a pilot and .
