Is it just me or are a lot more planes crashing lately?

[Dann Woolf]

My homepage (not sure that's the term, but it's the page my Firefox windows display by default) is Wikipedia's main page, and under the "In the news" bit I've noticed there are a lot of "X airline flight Y crashes on takeoff, killing Z passengers" announcements recently.

I can't help but be bugged by this.

[rock_nog]

All things considered, I've noticed a relative lack of plane crashes in recent years. Personally, I'd chalk it up to a statistical blip.

[AlphaDawg]

As far as I know, there have only been 2 commercial crashes lately... Spanair Flight 5022 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanair_Flight_5022) and Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 6895 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Aseman_Airlines_Flight_6895). These happened within only a few days of each other, but I can't remember the last commercial crash before these. As somebody who's flown more in the last 2 years than in my prior 26 years, any accident is bound to pique my interest.

I think commercial flight is safer than ever. There's often something to be learned from each accident to make the next flight safer.

[The_Amaster]

Heh, read an excellent book called Airframe, by Michal Crichton (The Jurassic Park guy, if that helps)
Really expresses how rare accidents are and how overblown they get.

[phattonez]

Airplanes don't crash much, but I think the difference is that in pretty much every plane crash you're guaranteed to die. Not so for many other forms of transportation.

I can't remember the last American airline that crashed. Was it Alaska?

[Modus Ponens]

Plus, you don't hear about all the car crashes that occur all the time, but you hear about just about every single plane crash that happens.

[Lilith]

---

[Modus Ponens]

You really think so? It would all be over so quick. I mean, you'd see it coming, but you can see a lot of pleasant ways to die coming, too, like old age. But from the moment of impact to the moment of your death would probably be a very short window of time.

[rock_nog]

It really depends. For starters, most deaths in an airplane crash aren't instantaneous - you usually die from being burned alive, not from the impact. Also, I remember hearing about this case where a plane exploded in midair. A few passengers survived the explosion and were hurled out of the airplane to plummet to their deaths. However, some of them survived the impact with the ground. Bones shatter, organs crushed, and they didn't live long, but according to eyewitnesses, they were alive and conscious, and in utter agony (as one would expect).