Do you think air travel is safe? (honestly)

[outsider]

This past month there has been many accidents that occurred in the aviation world. These are links to just a few:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/16/world/main780804.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4740381.stm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/14/world/main777050.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/06/world/main763639.shtml

 

[Monique]

Nothing is safe, but sitting in an airplane is probably safer than walking down the staircase. The fact that all passengers survived a plane skidding off the runway and bursting into flames should increase your survival confidence.

What do the plane crashes have to do with terrorists?

 

[Moonbear]

What do the plane crashes have to do with terrorists?

I was wondering the same thing...it seems the poll options focus on terrorists, but the OP focuses on accidents.

I fly often and the only thing I worry about when I do is catching the flu or some other illness from someone in the airport. (Why does it always seem everyone sitting around me is sniffling and coughing?)

 

[arildno]

Terrorism is a dismissable risk, along with that risk associated with an albatross getting into the jet engine (which also would occasion a disaster*).





*Not only for the albatross, that is..

 

[outsider]

Nothing is safe, but sitting in an airplane is probably safer than walking down the staircase. The fact that all passengers survived a plane skidding off the runway and bursting into flames should increase your survival confidence.

What do the plane crashes have to do with terrorists?

Sorry about that... I'm fresh out from those political threads and so it was sort my feeling that there would be people who would consider that a threat outside of the usual factors... Prior to making the survey, I was only intending to have a Yes / No... but realized that it may not be as simple as YES / NO for some people.

Sorry for the confusion. I am a simple person with complicated thoughts... that's my major problem.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I fly often and the only thing I worry about when I do is catching the flu or some other illness from someone in the airport. (Why does it always seem everyone sitting around me is sniffling and coughing?)

According to a physician who sat next to me on one flight, a recent study shows that the trays on the seat backs are the major source of disease transmission on aircraft. They don't get cleaned between flights, if ever. I had noticed that he wiped the tray with an alcohol swipe, so I asked.

 

[loseyourname]

I fly often and the only thing I worry about when I do is catching the flu or some other illness from someone in the airport. (Why does it always seem everyone sitting around me is sniffling and coughing?)

It might have something to do with increased humidity from having so many people together in a confined space, but that's pure speculation.

 

[Moonbear]

It might have something to do with increased humidity from having so many people together in a confined space, but that's pure speculation.

The air on planes is pretty dry; I don't know about airports, but they seem like they have dry air too -- I always seem to feel thirsty in airports.

 

[Monique]

The airconditioning causes a dry throat.. my tonsils always act up with airconditioning, licorice is really handy is such situations

 

[outsider]

It might have something to do with increased humidity from having so many people together in a confined space, but that's pure speculation.

Yes, the air is dry. There always seems to be some kind of chain reaction to it too (the sneezing / coughing i mean)... I really don't know what that's all about. I really should've added that Avian Flu component too... but o wells... am I able to change it now?

 

[russ_watters]

Nothing is safe...

I would say nothing is completely safe, but air travel is safe compared to every other mode of travel in existence.

Related poll...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A quick google Scholar produced this:

Hundreds of millions of passengers travel on U.S. airliners annually. These large numbers, together with the close proximity required onboard, raise a concern about microbiologic disease transmission in cabin air. Previous air quality surveys generally concentrated on environmental tobacco smoke and particulate matter. They largely ignored the microorganisms also present. We sampled the microbiologic climate of 45 domestic and international flights. We also sampled common locations in a major southwestern city. The concentration of microorganisms in airline cabin air is much lower than in ordinary city locations. We conclude that the small number of microorganisms found in U.S. airliner cabin environments does not contribute to the risk of disease transmission among passengers.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7661830&dopt=Citation

A quick look did not reveal anthing about the trays except perhaps this paper:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/ntwe/1998/00000013/00000001/art00035
but the context was not clear from the search results.

 

[Moonbear]

A quick google Scholar produced this:


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7661830&dopt=Citation

A quick look did not reveal anthing about the trays except perhaps this paper:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/ntwe/1998/00000013/00000001/art00035
but the context was not clear from the search results.

Was that with or without a sick passenger on board? I'm not concerned about the air system harboring germs, just of spending hours in a crowded space with people coughing on me. Sure, I could get coughed on at the local mall too, but I don't often spend hours sitting around there like when I'm stuck sitting around an airport or am on a flight and don't have a choice over who's sitting next to me.

(I don't have access to the journal it was published in so can't see the full text.)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Only the abstract is available for free. But of 45 flights, surely there were some flights with sick people on board. But direct contact with a sick person is obviously another issue. That happened to me at the Eiffel Tower. The guy behind me in line was sick as a dog and kept coughing in my direction. Two days later while high in the Swiss Alps at Zermatt, I was halfway to dead.

 

[Moonbear]

Yeah, it was the direct contact that I was referring to. Don't worry, it's not that important; I was half-joking when I said it.

 

[sean1234]

Okay according to the US DOT in the US alone in 2004 42,636 died in car accidents. In 2004 there were 75 from US airlines. So honestly which one is safer?

 

[sean1234]

This isn't really an accurate way of measuring safety- as the rate would be, but that is kind of difficult. In cars you could go by fatalities/ miles traveled. But using per miles traveled for airplanes isn't very accurate. Given the gross difference between the two absolutes, flying is by far safer.