Korman: Don’t be fooled, flying still safe

If someone fell comatose just before the Wright Brothers’ 1903 maiden flight and somehow awoke… If someone fell comatose just before the Wright Brothers’ 1903 maiden flight and somehow awoke intact in February 2009 to reports of 196-ton hunks of metal failing to stay airborne, he probably wouldn’t find it the least bit surprising. Anthropologically speaking, the mere concept of aviation defies common sense. Sure, birds can fly, but they are products of nature: lightweight, dexterous and motivated by a primal instinct to survive. Airplanes are none of these things. I’m not an aeronautical engineer, nor do I have the slightest clue what makes an aircraft do its thing. But whenever I board one, I entrust my life to the technological aptitude of mankind to date despite the fact that my instincts are jerking me back by the very strap of my carry-on. So upon first reading the bold-type CNN.com headline ‘Plane crashes near Buffalo’ alongside an ostentatious ‘BREAKING NEWS’ graphic last Saturday, I fell splayed between logic and intuition. On one hand, the tragedy of Continental Connection Flight 3407 was unremarkable ‘mdash; the Sept. 11 attacks, the American Airlines Flight 587’s tragic descent 10 minutes from my Queens home that November, images of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 afloat in the Hudson and this most recent disaster were all long-overdue indicators that maybe we’ve put too much faith in this flying business. And alas, these disasters confirmed my irrational fears. But thinking rationally, I was shocked. The National Safety Council keeps tabs on the accidental injury-related deaths that occur in the United States, and it tells us that we’re 76 times more likely to die in car accidents than we are in plane crashes and three times more likely to die from falling down the stairs. We’re just 1.2 percent more likely to die in a plane crash than accidentally strangling ourselves with our sheets while sleeping. Which means boarding an aircraft is essentially as risky as requesting the in-flight blanket. I spent much of that night hitting the ‘refresh’ button and watching the approximate death count develop into a confirmed total over the course of several hours. In doing so, I began to sense that we were somehow being robbed of something. This tragedy not only took 50 lives, but perhaps stripped us of a newfound public faith in commercial aviation barely a month old. At face value, it’s easy to brand the media’s coverage of U.S. Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger’s successful water landing as sensationalistic ‘mdash; consider the ‘Miracle on Hudson’ moniker, the Larry King interview and a Fox News story detailing the pilot’s various high school accolades. I view this zealous reaction as a manifestation of our collective need to move on from the distrust in air travel that has been brooding in this nation for the past several years. Airplane ticket sales did not reach their pre-Sept. 11 levels until 2004. Since 2001, the airline industry has typically shown up in the news either when an airline faces destitution or when an aircraft goes down. But on Jan. 15, we witnessed an ultimate display of competence, complementing the NSC’s encouraging figures with a classic heroic narrative for good measure. But the Flight 3407 tragedy risks undoing that reversal. Throughout the week, reports surfaced suggesting that the aircraft had been on autopilot through an ice storm ‘mdash; in direct breach of federal regulations ‘mdash; and that the pilot’s actions may very well have played a significant role in the crash. Whether it was pilot error or unavoidable accident, air travel remains one of the safest ways to travel between two points. In fact, it’s safer than walking. ‘Slipping, tripping and stumbling’ claimed 108 more lives in 2005 than air travel did. If five Boeing 747s went down tomorrow, motorcycle accident fatalities would still be twice that of plane crashes. Yet we read far more about plane crashes than we do about motorcycle accidents. Every society pays prices for its conveniences. We pay for the convenience elevator’s provide when people get stuck in them or while waiting three seconds for the doors to close after pushing the close-door button. We pay for the convenience of not having to walk everywhere not only at the gas pump, but in human lives as well. To be exact, 41,059 Americans died in car crashes in 2007. In a few weeks, many of us will take flight, some southward to paradise, others merely to our parents’ houses ‘mdash; mercy on our souls. But these trips, which a century ago would have taken weeks and cost a small fortune, are now made in an hour, complete with reading lamps, retractable seats, DirecTV and Sierra Mist. And they typically cost a few weeks’ pay at most ‘mdash; but the true price renders round-trip airfare a negligible formality.’ ‘ E-mail Ben at bek25@pitt.edu.