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Do We Have to Fly?
ChrisCrossings · October 10, 2001

Q: My wife and I both travel for our jobs. After the events of September 11, the first thing [our supervisors] asked us was, "You're going to fly next week, right?" This seems very unreasonable to me. What are your thoughts? Do you know who we could ask if it's reasonable to refuse to travel for the time being?

- Scott Baade

A: I don't blame you for being afraid to fly. We're all a little scared right now.

But if you expect me to tell you that your boss shouldn't ask you to fly, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong columnist. You and your wife certainly were aware of the risks before you took your current jobs-you knew that there was a chance that your plane could go down or your ship could sink or your rental car could careen off a cliff or your hotel could catch fire. You were prepared to live with that.

Sure, the world is a different place after September 11. We're worried that the terrorists might strike again, and we don't want to be their targets. Our fears-your fears-are completely justified. No statistics on how safe flying is, how safe it remains, are likely to lessen the way you feel.

And yet, when you think about it, this isn't a new problem. TV's talking heads would like us to believe that this is the first terrorism attack on American soil (makes for a better story). It isn't. Have we already forgotten about Oklahoma City? Did we fail to remember the first World Trade Center bombing?

I can't. I was there the first time that terrorists tried to take the World Trade Center down. I was a cub reporter at Dow Jones & Co. in the World Financial Center. I can only imagine what it felt like when the buildings actually came down.

The point is, we knew that characters like Osama Bin Laden and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and Timothy McVeigh had it in for us, and we still traveled. You still traveled.

Do I think your supervisors were unreasonable when they asked you to fly a week after the tragedy? No. Callous, maybe-but not unreasonable. They might have waited a little while before dispatching you to the airport. Many companies imposed a moratorium on business travel after the terrorist attacks. Hewlett-Packard and Gillette were among the most high-profile corporations that told their employees to stay put. By and large, those travel bans were lifted in early October.

If you're not up to traveling, you might want to request a transfer to a different position where you won't be on the road. But I would urge you to carefully consider that decision. By staying in an office building, I can't guarantee that you'll be any safer than on a plane.

Reader Emilie Quast recently sent me an e-mail noting that drunk-driving accidents killed more people last year than the terrorist attacks. "The stats for heart disease, home accidents, cancer, car-pedestrian accidents, and so on are still way beyond September 11," she added. She noted that with the new security measures in place at the airports, an argument could be made that "the safest place right now is in the air-and what's more, it always was."

Emilie makes a good point.

I wish I could tell you that it's your patriotic duty to board a plane, as our president seems to have suggested. Or that it's safe to fly again, with all the security precautions that we've read so much about. But I can only give you one reason to get back on the road: it's your job.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on weekly on Ticked.com. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.