Originally Posted by
GauleyPilot
Thanks, Pooch. Unfortunately, I have known more than one person who died flying for a living. Some good friends, others just professionally. I love my profession, I just have a thing about safety. It bothers me when people have a false sense of safety--ie "the most dangerous part is the drive to the airport" people.
As far as the Miami Herald story, I do have some faults with it.
Who here has a false sense of safety? You keep beating this dead horse "It can happen to you!" boggie man. None of us on here have said anything about any organization being safe, only about the ones that are unsafe. We all know there are risk associated with flying and that there's always a possibility our time may be next. I've had several friends and acquaintances bit the big one. Just a couple years ago I witnessed a good friend of mine and a student kill them selves. Trends do show a certain level of safety though and a trend of not crashing verses a trend of crashes show a safer organization verses an organization with problems and less safety. When it comes down to it we, the pilots are the last and first line of defense in safety. Your right it can happen to anybody, but if you use your noggin you can reduce that probability, by flying safe and smart, and staying away from organizations with bad track records. So we get it alright!