Why do people day airplanes are safer than automobiles when it doesn't make much sense if u think about it?

Question

For one thing, there are approximately 800 million automobiles vs. 1-3 million airplanes in the world so it is common sense you would have many more auto accidents than airplane accidents.

Secondly, most automobile accidents are "fender benders." If one plane has a "fender bender" with another airplane, your odds of surviving are poor at best.

Answer 1

They aren't.

We were in Paris last year and our plane was taxying (waiting to take off) and a food truck hit it (with us in it).  It clipped our wing but the pilot and technicians said that it could still fly without the missing piece, so we took off.

When we landed, we had a fuel leak and the hot brakes caught the fuel on fire (WITH US IN THE PLANE).  But we had to remain seated.  The pilot was like "if your sitting on the left side of the plane you might see flames and smoke, but don't worry the fire fighters are on their way".  So we waited for them to put out our plane and then we were alowed to get off, our plane had CAUGHT on FIRE.

Yeah, it sucked.  And I did not make up this story and i'm not exagerating.  So no, they are not safe.

Answer 2

it has to do with the number of people hurt per year and the percentages,

Answer 3

tanks79 is correct.

also are you talking about comercial airplanes?

Well think about this... how many TRAINED pilots are...

-drunk

-drugged up

-not paying attention

-talking to their kids in the backseat

-dont have co-pilots

-reading a book

-talking on their cell phones

-have another airplane coming towards them

-dont have a licence

PLUS pilots have a whole bunch of technology and have a crew to help in case of a emergency, which they are trained in thanks to 911(god bless)

Airplanes dont have fender benders with other planes, because they are going to be on different mathamatical planes.

GOOD, it got me thinking!

Answer 4

commercial air travel is safer because any fool can get into a car, turn the engine on, get out on the road and endanger your family.

But only a highly educated and well-trained fool can operate an airliner.

Answer 5

Thank goodness that we dont have 800 million airplanes in the air then we really could compare the two..............

Answer 6

they base the idea that planes are safer than cars on the fact that more people are killed each year in auto accidents than plane crashes, not on how many accidents there are.  I believe they also make it a percentage based on how many people fly vs. an estimate of how many people drive a year as well.

Answer 7

They say it's safer to fly than to walk.

Now, if I could take a plane to work... but I probably live closer than the runway would have to be.