Re:Plane crashes and other accidents
Tony B. Csoka (csoka@itsa.ucsf.edu)
Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:47:51 -0700
As people's lifespans slowly but surely start to increase, the frequency
of death from "unnatural causes" will also increase. Eventually, the
chance of dying in a car accident or plane crash will become quite
significant. Approximately one in 2 million flights go down. That means
that if you make only 100 flights in your life, the chance is one in
20,000 that one of the planes will go down - that's way "better" than
the lottery. I saw a rather horrifying TV program recently called "Why
planes go down". Human error is by far the major reason. Anyway, there
was one crash in which one of the engines blew out, and the pilots had
to land the plane as best they could. Even though they had 1/2 hour to
get the plane down, something like 150 people died. A rather obvious
question is "why do airlines not make parachutes available to
passengers." Admitedly, there are some incidents where you have _no_
time to save anybody, but sometimes there _is_ time to bail out. It may
seem like a naive question, but I would appreciate people's opinions.
TBC