Personal: Well, I'm flying tomorrow. Erin and I are going to visit her parents in Massachusettes and then fly to Germany for a couple of weeks. We've been wanting to go for a long time and planning this trip for several months. If anyone is interested, here's our itinerary:
Airports:
- CVG - Cincinnati, OH
- BDL - Hartford/Springfield, CT
- JFK - New York, NY
- FRA - Frankfurt, Germany
To Europe:
- 10 Sept 2001
- PDX to CVG, Delta flight 890, 10:45 - 8:09
- CVG to BDL, Delta flight 2204, 19:15 - 21:15
- From Hartford we drive back to Erin's parents' house in Great Barrington, MA.
- 25 Sept 2001
- JFK to FRA, Singapore Air flight 25, 21:45 - 11:15 (arrv 26th)
Return trip:
- 9 Oct 2001
- FRA to JFK, Sinapore Air flight 26, 8:30 - 10:40
- 10 Oct 2001
- BDL to CVG, Delta flight 994, 17:50 - 9:49
- CVG to PDX, Delta flight 1597, 20:55 - 22:39
My parents, who have hardly ever flown in their lives, are very worried. Erin's parents, who fly often (her father flys about 18 times a year), are not so worried. Given the recent events, there is some cause for worry. But lets put the matter in perspective:
- On one day in 2001, 266 people died on airplanes. This
is an exceptional occurance; 266 people don't die every day
on planes; hardly even in five years. But for the sake of
simplicity, let's assume the worst and that this is yearly
average.
- According to a CDC report from 1998, there were 530
deaths in my age group (25-34) caused by pneumonia; 90,174
total. If we were to make a patently false worst-case
assumption that all 266 people were aged between 25 and 34,
I'm twice as likely to die from pneumonia.
-
In the same report, there were 7,132 deaths in my age group
caused by motor vehicle accidents; 43,501 in total. Based
on the same assumption, I'm almost 29 times more likely to
die in an auto accident.
-
Again in the same report, there were 4,565 deaths in my age
group because of "Homocide and legal intervention"
(I'm not sure what the latter is; I assume being killed by a
cop); and 18,272 total. This is actually a little
surprising to me; nonetheless, I'm 17 times more likely to
be murdered.
I'm not afraid to fly; neither am I afraid of dying in a car accident, from pneumonia, or by murder.