Do you think it is any safer to fly commercial airlines since 9/11/01?

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John

Yes, for several reasons.

Cockpit doors are now reinforced to prevent unauthorized entry (the new doors are *very* stout), and they're seldom opened in flight.

Passengers are now fully aware of the risks of doing nothing in the event of a hijacking attempt -- 9/11 changed the way we think about hijackings. Pre-9/11, hijackers forced the plane to land somewhere and made political demands. Now we have to assume that every hijacking will end in mass murder. If terrorists try anything like 9/11 again, they're going to have to deal with the whole plane-load of angry passengers fighting for their lives, not just the cabin crew.

As anyone who's flown since 9/11 can attest, security screening has expanded dramatically. You could argue (correctly, in my view) that they should be looking harder at people and behavior instead of concentrating all their effort on objects, but the PC crowd screams "racial profiling" every time the subject comes up. The simple fact is that little old ladies in wheelchairs don't hijack airliners. Never have, never will. Young middle-eastern men do.

The Air Marshall program was sucking wind before 9/11, but it's been expanded greatly since. In addition, the Federal Flight Deck Officer program was started, which trains and deputizes pilots do defend the flight deck with a handgun. That program continues to expand all the time. There are also voluntary self-defense courses for flight attendants, though I don't know how much participation they've seen.

Statistically speaking, commercial aviation since 9/11 has been through one of the safest periods in its history. The Comair 5191 crash in Lexington, KY was the first commercial airline crash since Dec 2001. Pilots have a saying about the safety of flying -vs- other forms of transportation that sums up the risks pretty well: the most dangerous part of flying is driving to the airport. Driving kills something like 40,000 people every year in this country. One airline crash has killed 49 since Dec 2001.

raz_fnc

Listen, I know 9/11/01 scares everybody around the world, espacially American people. However, we cannot stop the world because of what happened on that day. We just have to continue our life. Then, your life wouldn't be life.

Chick with pets

They say the chances of a plane crash are still the same as before 911. The chances are the same as driving across your town.

soccerknocker199

yes

smartguyschool

yes because all you have to do is pray over yourself that god will protect you

someonecanbme

no. and the question only came up because you watched too much television today

Brian Da Dog

Yep, have dones so 4 times and felt no harm. Even when they decided not to perform the random search on my 2yo son when his ticket flagged a search. I would fly tomorrow if I had a place to go.

ladyjeansntee

Flying is FINE. Give yourself extra time to get through securitty, don't bring any banned tems, and you're good to go.

skypirate23

yes

Snuz

the only safety concern I have is taking off on a runway that's too damn short

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