• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Ticked e-mail
• Visit Tripso
• Referring sites
• Home

s e a r c h

• Find a story.



(c) Elliott Publishing.

Is it Safe to Fly?
Err Travel · October 12, 2001

The question I have received most often from both clients and the media during the past month is, "Is it safe to fly on commercial airlines today?"

And without hesitation, my answer has been, "No. Absolutely not. And it won't be safe to fly tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year."

You see, there is just no way in the world that thousands of machines, each composed of tens of thousands of parts, and each operated by human beings can, day in and day out, overcome the relentless force of gravity pulling each of them back to earth. It is simply impossible.

"No" can be the only sensible answer to the question, "Is it safe to fly today?"

But this is the wrong question to ask because safe is a term of certainty, of absoluteness. In our world, there are no contrivances of man that are of certain operation so for sure there is no such thing as safe transportation. It is a goal that we should continually reach for, but it will always be beyond our grasp.

A better question to ask is, "Relatively speaking, is it safe to fly today?" And to this question, the answer is, "Yes."

Even with the 266 passengers and crew murdered in the September 11 hijackings, transportation via commercial airliner is no less safe than it was prior to those events. And it continues to be, relatively speaking, as safe a conveyance - if not safer - than auto, rail, bus, or ship.

If I didn't believe this, I wouldn't be writing this aboard American Airlines flight #2464, at 30,000 feet somewhere over New Mexico.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority. He is author of the popular book Travel Can Be Murder. Visit his site at http://www.appliedpsychology.com or e-mail him at terry@ticked.com.