Quote:
Originally Posted by skydog  Other than a couple of runway overruns, this is a carrier that has gone its entire existence (37 years) without a single crash. That is hardly the pattern of a carrier that ignores safety. Compare that with any other airline. |
I will compare that with any other airline.
The number of crashes does not indicate the safety of an air carrier. A crash is just an ASAP report that fully manifested itself by passing through every single safety obstacle in the way and ending in the worst possible scenario.
This morning there could have been an airline that flew a jet, in IMC, way too low over a ridge near some mountainous outstation airport and missed crashing by 200 feet. That is not going to be in the news, but will anyone besides a select few ever know it happened? No, but it is not safe either.
At one point years ago, USAir had I believe five out of the last six major accidents and was undergoing lots of scrutiny from the FAA, who could not account for the dismal numbers and USAir could not be faulted in any major way. Sometimes safety is a mystery.