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I appreciate your answer and the informative links. No aircraft ever made is "safe". They will all crash and kill people given sufficient flight hours
by JohnBooty 9y ago
I appreciate your answer and the informative links.
No aircraft ever made is "safe". They will all crash and
kill people given sufficient flight hours. The question
is what we consider acceptable risk,
Let's give our fellow HNers a little credit, shall we?
When the other poster asked if 747s were "safe," do you really think they meant to ask if 747s were literally indestructible? Or do you think the other poster meant "safe" as in "safe, compared to other aircraft, which are things that any reasonable human being understands can have accidents from time to time?" I really believe it was the latter.
- avar 9y agoNobody thinks airplanes are indestructible, but it is counteractive to those not familiar with commercial aviation that not only is the market for licensing new airframes regulated, but that older airframes are expected to be retrofitted to the latest safety standards or lose their license. This isn't how e.g. trains, buses and even taxis are regulated. E.g. I believe in most of the western world you could still operate an antique car without seat belts as a taxi. This is how I read the GPs comment of "I take it 747s have been safe up til now". The only way the bus/train/taxi in my example would lose its license is if it could be shown if the vehicle didn't adhere to the safety standards at the time, whereas the same isn't true for airplanes at all due to how the FAA & EASA regulate them.