41 ms·

If I led the FAA, I'd stay the course. Being dead is infinite. Delays due to safety are not.

• yuliyp 5y ago
  At some point the total life duration cost of the safety actions exceeds the sum of the extended lives due to the safety actions. In the 5 billion hours example, 10 people live for under 10 million hours in total (1 million hours = 114 years). You'd have spent 5000 lives worth of time to save 10, which is not worth it in the aggregate.
  • shadowgovt 5y ago
    That's assuming that all of the people that aren't traveling have just been put in stasis or something. People waiting for their plane when it's delayed go on about their lives. They're not on plan A, but they're still living. People who die in a plane crash don't get to execute on plans A through Z. Even if you run the numbers as a comparison of hours lost waiting for your plane to years lost from somebody's actuarial life expectancy because they died in a crash, it's not a one for one comparison.
    • aeternum 5y ago
      Yes, this is a good point, an hour of being dead has zero utility whereas an hour of being delayed has at least partial utility.