Reply #58: You're assuming... [View All]

[bdab1973]

...that military aircraft crash all the time. They don't. On average, the Air Force loses only a handful of airplanes a year. While not AS safe as civilian flying (airliners don't do any of the things we do, like low-level routes, cargo airdrop, landing on dirt runways at night with night vision goggles, etc), it IS as safe as civilian flying when you count out the military-specific things we do. In other words, military flying is as safe as civilian flying when it comes to routine takeoff, landing and cruise flight.

Another thing you need to understand, I fly over civilians ALL THE TIME. I fly over populated areas all the time, it's just the nature of flying. If you restrict aircraft to only unpopulated areas, you wouldn't get very far. The benefit of having aircraft is the range they give you, whether it's the range to drop munitions or the range to carry cargo. That in itself means you must fly over land, and flying over land means you must fly over people. What would be the purpose of restricting aircraft to only flying over the ocean?

The type of accident that occurred in San Diego is a very rare accident. Your family has a greater chance of dying in a car accident...many times greater. You have about an equal chance of dying from a civilian aircraft plowing into your house...

Case in point...in Conway, Arkansas last year, a civilian business jet overshot the runway and plowed into a house, killing the pilot and the occupants of the house...you didn't see cries to ban the air traffic, people just accepted it as a risk. And it is a risk...risk is everywhere you look. But because a handful of the 300,000,000+ million people die in a freak accident like this one doesn't mean that it's suddenly an extremely high risk.