Do you remember when commercial air carriers would boast that traveling by air was far safer than, say, driving your motor vehicle?
Why, planes rarely crashed, they would tell us. So, come on aboard and fly with us! We’ll get you to where you want to go!
No more, man.
Just the other day an airline passenger went nuts in the air, threatening to stab a flight attendant with a spoon, threatening to open the door at 30,000 feet; dude went nuts. He is far from the first one to go bonkers. He is just the latest. We keep hearing about passengers hassling flight crews, threatening them with various sorts of bodily harm. They get into fistfights with fellow passengers.
There have been too damn many of these mid-flight air-rage events in recent times to suit my taste. I would be inclined to fly somewhere … but for the possibility that one of the passengers on a flight with me aboard would do what that idiot did.
Then we have those near misses on the ground and in the air. Two jetliners clipped wings while taxiing this week. Air traffic controllers aircraft taking off without proper authorization, nearly hitting other aircraft.
What the hell is going on here?
Pilot fatigue? Lack of personnel? Passengers venting their pent-up anger over the COVID pandemic? Computer glitches shutting down entire flight systems?
Eek! I think I’ll keep my feet planted on the ground.
