Yea, when I was going through pilot training it took me a while to realize why it was so dangerous compared to cars. The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that

Yea, when I was going through pilot training it took me a while to realize why it was so dangerous compared to cars. The biggest reason, in my opinion, is that in a car, you can stop and get out and you're ok. In a plane, you can't stop and get out, you're trapped. If you bail out, now you have an unguided missile. Private pilot licenses have much lower standards than commercial operations. Commercial has tighter maintenance and training requirements, and is consequently much more expensive to run. Until around the 1960s to 1970s, air travel was very very dangerous. People died quite regularly. It was the implementation of serious safety practices and regulations that changed the risk to be safer than riding in a car, and public perception. Since aviation makes the country go, and people have an innate fear of flying, the FFA is both concerned for the increased loss of human life and the loss of trust in flying that would translate to the commercial sector if this went through.