Is it still safe to fly? Simon Calder explains all you need to know after Delta Airlines plane crashSource: Simon Calder
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00You have probably seen the pictures, the images, the footage of Delta Air Lines flight 4819 from Minneapolis
00:08which crashed on arrival at Toronto Airport on Monday the 17th of February.
00:14The aircraft flipped over and all 80 passengers and crew were successfully evacuated.
00:23Three of them are reported to be in a critical condition and of course our thoughts are with
00:29them and their families. Now a few people are saying to me what a miracle it was that everyone
00:36got out alive and other people are saying flying is becoming much more dangerous and I'd like to
00:44address both of those points. First of all this like the last such incident at Toronto Airport
00:53that was in 2005 involving an Air France flight from Paris. Everybody got out alive but that was
01:01not due to a miracle it was due to extremely good planning, engineering and execution of the
01:10emergency evacuation. People need to listen to the safety briefing and they need to follow the
01:18instructions of cabin crew. One thing which actually I found very alarming about the images
01:24I've seen of the Delta Air Lines flight is that people were clutching their cabin baggage as they
01:30left the aircraft. Please don't film stuff inside the cabin, please don't grab anything in the
01:37extremely unlikely event that you are involved in an emergency evacuation. Safety in aviation is
01:46built on past tragedies and lessons from very sadly fatal accidents have helped to ensure that
01:54people manage to survive this accident. Next is aviation becoming more dangerous? Well looking at
02:03the tragedies that have happened since Christmas Day when you'll recall an Azerbaijan Airlines
02:09aircraft crashed after it was shot by Russian anti-aircraft fire. A few days later an aircraft
02:17coming into land at a Korean airport ploughed into a concrete barrier. Then we saw on the 29th of
02:24January the horrific crash between a commuter jet and a Black Hawk helicopter at Washington DC.
02:32Now it is tempting, it's human to conclude that flying is becoming more dangerous but please
02:40don't draw that very apparently self-evident conclusion. This is absolutely the safest decade
02:48that we have ever seen for passenger aviation and flying remains far safer than almost any other
02:56form of transport except possibly the railways. In particular British and Irish airlines have
03:03absolutely the best safety record in the world. Ryanair is the safest airline in terms of the
03:10number of passengers flown without a fatal accident and EasyJet is in second place.