Paradoxically it's because it seldom happens. The fact that it's a rare and big occurence makes it newsworthy. It plays to a lot of peoples natural fear of fly

Paradoxically it's because it seldom happens. The fact that it's a rare and big occurence makes it newsworthy. It plays to a lot of peoples natural fear of flying[1] which makes the story that much better. The fact that a lot of people usually get killed helps too. Even though it's a rare event it seems like it happens all the time, simply because it's a major worldwide newsstory every single time. This tricks people into believing that flying is unsafe - they constantly see newsstories and documentaries about people who have died in an air crash. People are afraid of sharks for much the same reason, even though your chance of being devoured by a shark is significantly smaller than the chance of falling down the stairs and dying [1] This natural fear could well be rooted in the evolutionary advantage of being scared when you are up high looking down. The ones that weren't scared fell off the cliff and died.