2002 was a safe year to fly

phule · 01-03-2003, 10:13 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/01/03/safer.flying.ap/

Quote:

No one died aboard a passenger or cargo airliner in the United States in 2002, the third time in a decade that a year went by without a fatality on a commercial plane.

dbaker · 01-03-2003, 10:34 AM

This is great news and certainly reassuring that commercial air travel is the safest way to travel in the US. We owe it all to the almost tedious diligence of both the ground and flight crews that strictly adhere to rigorous specifications and checklists every day.

The whole process is almost transparent to passengers, but I always feel that it's a genuine sign of commitment to safety when I watch from the tarmac from a terminal window and see the captain walk down the jet way stairs and spend a few minutes doing a pre-departure walk-around.

It's easy to lose touch with how serious the situation is and be overly comfortable with the process when you ride on over a hundred departures and landings a year. However, it was a real reminder for me on a late night arrival to IAH a few months ago when moments before touchdown, the captain aborted the landing; it was unclear to the flight crew if the nose gear had successfully dropped and locked in place. After a half hour of troubleshooting in the air, we touched down without incident. Regardless, I thanked the crew as I walked off with serious respect for their commitment to safety and tiresome efforts of actually looking and verifying "three green" before every single landing.

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01-03-2003, 10:34 AM	#2
dbaker Senior Member ITYT Captain Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: IAH/HOU Posts: 2,354	This is great news and certainly reassuring that commercial air travel is the safest way to travel in the US. We owe it all to the almost tedious diligence of both the ground and flight crews that strictly adhere to rigorous specifications and checklists every day. The whole process is almost transparent to passengers, but I always feel that it's a genuine sign of commitment to safety when I watch from the tarmac from a terminal window and see the captain walk down the jet way stairs and spend a few minutes doing a pre-departure walk-around. It's easy to lose touch with how serious the situation is and be overly comfortable with the process when you ride on over a hundred departures and landings a year. However, it was a real reminder for me on a late night arrival to IAH a few months ago when moments before touchdown, the captain aborted the landing; it was unclear to the flight crew if the nose gear had successfully dropped and locked in place. After a half hour of troubleshooting in the air, we touched down without incident. Regardless, I thanked the crew as I walked off with serious respect for their commitment to safety and tiresome efforts of actually looking and verifying "three green" before every single landing.