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And you could certainly make the same argument about airliners, which have a death rate <10% that of trains (and <1% that of cars). But if you try to make that
by jonas21 4y ago
And you could certainly make the same argument about airliners, which have a death rate <10% that of trains (and <1% that of cars).
But if you try to make that argument on HN, a bunch of people will yell at you about how Boeing and the FAA are evil for putting cost savings over safety.
- antisthenes 4y ago> And you could certainly make the same argument about airliners, which have a death rate <10% that of trains (and <1% that of cars). You can, but it's not a fair comparison. 99.9% of deaths of railroad transport is people killed while crossing rails - e.g. pedestrians. If you consider rail passengers only, it is far lower than airlines and cars, something on the scale of 2-3 people/year. Airplanes are cheating in the sense that there are no pedestrians in the air to collide with.
- dogecoinbase 4y agoI mean, not _zero_[0]... but close enough, really. 0: https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/accident-analysis/featured-accidents/terminal-velocity-when-airplanes-and-skydivers-collide https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institut...
- davewasthere 4y agoWow.. And if you asked me to predict the outcome of that incident, I'd have said the fatalities would have been the other way around... go figure!
- antisthenes 4y agoHaha, ok, I stand corrected. Interesting stat.
- rdtwo 4y agoThe Safety cost and even the hull cost is simply not a major contributor to the cost of your ticket. It’s mostly fuel gate fees maintenance and overhead
- loeg 4y agoWhere do you think the maintenance fees come from? That's in part a safety cost.
- jhugo 4y agoFuel as well!
- edrxty 4y ago"this isn't enough fuel to get more than 80% of the way there!" "you don't need fuel for the descent though"
- edrxty 4y agoKeep in mind, if you compromise maintenance for costs, you'll make up the costs in crew wages as they obviously have 1-2 orders of magnitude more risk exposure than the average passenger and won't be willing to fly for anything less than massive hazard pay.
- rdtwo 4y agoScheduled maintenance is done with semi slave labor in the 3rd world. Routine is more expense local labor but the routine stuff can’t be deferred anyway
- morsch 4y agoAirliners are much safer than other modes of transportation per mile traveled. The difference vanishes (mostly, or reverses) when interpreted per mile on the vehicle or per trip. If airliners were only as safe as walking, nobody would use them, because you'd expect to have at least a minor accident (like a sprained ankle) when walking 2000 miles. A similar argument can be made for cars and trains (just a magnitude less distance per trip and consequently a smaller chance of injury). It's a novel idea in terms of emissions avoidance, though: couple the externalities to personal risk.
- escapedmoose 4y agoPeople who currently are forced to commute daily with cars could be much safer doing so on a more robust train system. You wouldn’t get the same benefit from cheaper flights.
- plussed_reader 4y agoDid we both interpret the MCAS incident with Boeing differently? Because I saw this as regulatory capture putting it's metaphorical testicles where it felt comfortable.