Senator Theodore "Ted" Fulton Stevens of Alaska, the longest serving Republican senator in US history. Stevens perished in an air crash in southwest Alaska overnight. (photo: Washington Independent)
The news that embattled former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was killed in a plane crash in that state this afternoon was just the latest in a string of celebrity deaths by aviation, one more reminder of the fragility of life in general and the risks of small aircraft in particular.
The body of Stevens, 86, was found this morning after the DeHavilland DHC-3T he was flying in north of Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska went down in heavy rain and wind. Five of the nine passengers on the single-engine aircraft perished in the accident, and three survivors were reportedly airlifted to Anchorage.
I think of the many times my husband has suggested we charter a small airplane as an alternative to driving somewhere. Every time I have talked him out of it. He recalls his later years in business as an executive flying around the country in a corporate jet and thinks it's cost effective (it isn't) and safe (clearly questionable). I'm reminded that he was a pilot in World War II who loved to fly and wanted desperately to be a commercial pilot when he returned, but life, and a first wife who was raising a family with him, had other plans. Admittedly, I owe much to the family who flew my father to and from Salt Lake City in the final weeks of his struggle with cancer, saving him a four-hour ride in a car, but they, too, later faced aviation tragedy.
Former Senator Paul Wellstone went down in a crash with his wife and daughter in 2002. Former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan perished in a small aircraft two years earlier, while campaigning.
All the Buddy Holly and JFK, Jr. stories aside, I've pretty much lost interest in air travel in general, large or small, single engine or not, due to diminishing convenience.
It's a wonder any of us fly anymore, really.
I appreciate the fact that the airlines are facing financial difficulties, like so many other sectors of industry, not to mention the general public. People are crammed into aircraft with few comforts or amenities anymore. What used to pass for acceptable standards in Coach Class isn't even met in the First Class cabins of most domestic airlines.
Remembering when the skies used to be friendly--and fun.
I recall my first overseas flight in 1979, a super APEX nonstop from San Francisco to Heathrow on British Airways. Even though I was in the back of Coach Class (with two very funny women from the Channel Islands returning home from holiday), I was served several meals on the several-hour flight, all with fine china, silver and linen.
Now, a bag of pretzels or party mix is about all one can hope for in Coach. Domestic meals in First look like warmed up frozen dinners plopped on a porcelain disc.
The increase in security requirements didn't help the inconvenience of air travel. Learning to dress and pack in such a way that one can go through security kicking off shoes while removing a laptop from its case all while having a husband in a wheelchair and a dog under one arm is no easy task. I've gotten it down to a system, but don't enjoy it.
I used to love to travel. I didn't even mind the small planes, the little interisland hoppers from Maui to Molokai, Kahului to Hana, or the 9-seaters we took from southwest Florida to Key West every winter. I was fine boarding sightseeing planes in southwest Alaska to go over the glaciers, didn't think twice about helicopter tours in Kauai.
In 1998, the Swissair flight (SR-111) I'd taken just a couple of years earlier from Kennedy to Zurich crashed dramatically near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia (I awoke that morning in Wisconsin to a vivid dream that a plane had crashed on a rocky coastline). Two years later in midsummer of 2000, I was on a cruise ship in southwest Alaska not far from where Stevens perished when I learned that the Air France Concorde I flew to my honeymoon in Paris crashed (AF-4590), effectively ending the program.
At one point in my life I was on several flights a year, often more than once a month, occasionally for business, often for pleasure, and didn't hesitate about it. I passed the million-mile mark on one now defunct airline some time ago. I loved almost everything about air travel except suspended animation on tarmacs.
Now, I've come to dread it, closely bordering on loathing.
I suppose I'll be up in the air again out of necessity, but not because I enjoy it anymore. And I'll be ruling out the small aircraft.
The New York Times reports that Ted Stevens long had a premonition his life would end in an airline crash, a risk that was increased in that part of the country where air travel is a necessity, and not just one of several options.
I'll take a moment in silence to mourn the passing of a man I did not know, whatever I thought of him or his difficulties in this life, and all those who lose their lives unnecessarily in aviation accidents.
And while I'm at it, I'll mourn the passing of a form of travel that used to be a joy.
Former Senator Ted Stevens (above, center) was said to be on his way to a favorite Alaska fishing lodge when he lost his life.
On the Web:
Former Senator Ted Stevens Is Killed in a Plane Crash - NY Times
Senator Ted Stevens Dies in Air Plane Crash - Open Salon/Catherine Forsythe
Ted Stevens Killed in Plane Crash - Salon/Alex Pareene
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Comments
I offer my condolences to the family of Ted Stevens. And I'm really glad that my husband is red/green color blind, as that makes him ineligble to get his pilot's license, something that he had talked about doing.
I love train travel, and I've taken Amtrak cross-country three times now. It's time-consuming and has it's issues, but at least you get treated like a human being and even get to talk to fellow un-stressed-out passengers. One of the things I had hoped would come out of this damned recession -- especially since Joe Biden is such a train nut -- is funding for high-speed rail lines, or at least an improvement on the existing lines. I think I'll be waiting for a long, long time.
Rated!
Other industries (including hospitals) actually study commercial aviation to learn how to reduce error and thus injury and death, because they've gotten it down to a science. It's actually astonishing how safe most commercial air travel is, given what could go wrong.
But small planes...those are another story. That's where the risk of flying is.
I don't. Got scared silly on a military flight in the early '90s. Haven't been back up since. All the other misadventures you mention merely add to my reluctance.
Whatever anyone think of Stevens (myself included), he did more for Alaska than any one person, ever. I'm sorry his life ended in tragedy.
As to the Stevens air crash, I can only think he perhaps did not time his flight correctly--but this is out of my own ignorance, of course. For all I or anyone else may think, conditions may have been clear enough on take-off. His family must be mourning his loss with deep seated feelings toward air travel in general, small plane travel in particular.
I myself had two smaller aircraft flights in and out of an out-of-the-way place over the winter, visiting friends for the holidays. I was pretty much afraid the whole way both times. I doubt I'd go through with it again after what I've learned. Meditative prayer helped me overcome my fear on the return trip, but all the same, I think I'll stick to ground travel from now on.
rated
(R)ated for leaving me this soft-ball.
My Dad is a retired airline pilot, my brother is a current airline pilot, my husband is a private airplane pilot with a commercial license, and my oldest son is a pilot in the Air Force......and with all that, I am scared of flying. Part of it is my age (51) and part of it is the observation of the decline in aviation safety.
I would like to make one correction concerning your post. Airplanes, large and small, are relatively safe to fly. It's the pilots that are making the mistakes. Pilot error accounts for most of the crashes.
Your point is well taken but there are just so many ways to die that I'm not about to let this deter me from flying.
I'm headed for Amsterdam in a month and I'm much more worried about minding the puppy that will be flying with me than I am about crashing.
But as to your arguments about safety, I must cite you for irresponsbly suggesting that air travel is wildly unsafe, while driving is so much better. You've made general statements, yet offered no data. The reason why we hear about "celebrity" airplane crashes is because 1) they involve a celebrity, and everything conceivable is reported about celebrities, even what they eat for breakfast and 2) Airplane fatalities are quite rare, which is why they make news.
In 2009, of the nearly 11 million flights in the U.S., there was a total of 272 deaths. Of those, only 34 were in small planes.
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/Table1.htm
The real question is why does anyone drive anymore? In 2009, there were nearly 6 million car accidents that resulted in nearly 40,000 fatalities. So, you're actually more likely to get killed driving to or from the airport.
http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/resources/statistics.html
Alaska is a very large state that is difficult, and in some area, impossible to navigate by roads. It is not surprising that Ted Stevens had a premonition that he'd die in a plane accident. Given his age and the length of time that he was in public service, it would be unsurprising if he flew if he averaged three round-trip small flights a week. That's more than 15,000 flights in the course of his public life.
Yes, it sucks to fly now due to the hyper-crowding and the pretzels-only policy on most carriers. But as someone who is a pilot herself, and comes from an entire family in the aviation industry -- please do not try to reason it out with the fact that politicians or entertainers -- who fly constantly in small planes or jets, by the way -- that they have the occasional, well-publicized crash is some kind of indicator that air travel is so much less safe than other modes of travel, particuarly driving.
The scariest flight my life was landing in Cuzco on Faucett (now defunct), although a 10-hr trip with a solid hour of turbulence between Taipei and San Francisco mid-Pacific takes second place. As someone who loves to travel overseas, I have to get on a plane to do it...
I am more frightened of vicious turbulence, like the kind that has hit three United flights of late. Much more likely than a crash.
You're in far more danger every time you get in your car and head to the corner to buy milk.
And the tradeoff of getting somewhere in two hours that would take a day and a half to drive to?
Suit yourself.
Didn't realize we had post inspectors. I say, tear up the ticket.
I recently wrote something on this, the soul-killing, tensely paranoid, exhausting and frequently bizarre nightmare that is air travel. Car travel is my new favorite, but then, I'm not working anymore and don't have to travel for work, just pleasure. Having some autonomy is a great pleasure. I like the sense of motion and even the tiredness. You can see things in a car, things around you and things inside of you.
As far as safety goes, all flights and all drives are not equal. Tiny planes are more dangerous, as are bad cars and bad drivers. You may have a greater chance of being in an accident if you travel by road, but I like my chances in a Volvo better than a Boeing.
Air travel is way more inconvenient and way less comfortable but bad weather plus small craft plus formidable geography (mountain ranges, oceans, etc) still implies some risk...
Flying is safer than driving. About 120 people a day die in auto crashes... every day and every day and every day. As a matter of fact, statistically speaking, flying is safer than walking. Not only that, flying has become safer and safer over the last several decades. But what makes plane crashes dramatic, and thus newsworthy, is that a bunch of people die at the same time AND that it isn't a very common occurrence. But the rate at which people die in planes is very low compared to cars.
As to the TSA mess, all the hassle is primarily a show, in my opinion. They need to look like they are doing something proactive so the public will have confidence. I personally prefer the Isaraeli system... and they have a far bigger tangible threat level than we do. They don't do all this mickey mouse stuff with shoes and cosmetic, etc. Everyone approaching an Israeli airport goes through several quick checkpoints where potential threats are identified by a combination of hard intel and behaviorial analysis. It is arguably as effective, if not more effective than our system, and it doesn't hassle the beejeezus out of the travelers.
Difference is, when a plane takes a powder, it brings down a large number and hence makes the news. Plane trips are much more binary than cars. You either make it ... or you don't.
I have become less enamored of the experience as well, however. It's not much better than travelling by bus these days. Hideous.
I have not, here or anywhere, suggested (irresponsibly or otherwise) that "airline travel is wildly unsafe."
This piece is as much about the deteriorating standard of air travel comfort, convenience and cost and less about safety. It has just become a less pleasant way to travel than it used to be, and that was inspired by thoughts surrounding Ted Stevens' death today. I've been thinking them for a while.
I've always been an unfearful flyer, always enjoyed air travel and recommended it to others. I've only had one unpleasant (as in unsettling) experience on an airplane, and that I shared in my post "The Day Matthew Shepard Died."
And for those who are unclear on the matter, this is a personal narrative/opinion piece and does not purport to be news, although it is inspired by a current news event. Anyone who thinks it represents anything else is mistaken.
As far as safety goes, it has been about a year and a half since the last commercial airline accident with fatalities. That flight crashed on February 12, 2009, and 45 people were killed in that crash. It was Colgan 3407, and as a result of that crash, Congress passed legislation requiring pilots to have more hours before they're allowed to get a job at an airline.
Since that flight crashed, 538 days have passed as I write this on August 10. There are about 23,000 flights per day, if you use the stats for April 2010. That means that there have been 12.4 million flights since then.
The odds of you getting killed on a commercial airline flight are so small that you can't even see them with a microscope.
To put things in perspective, in 2008, according to NHTSA, there were 34,000 people killed in car accidents. The total number of people who have died in commercial airline flights from 1990 to 2009 is 1,635, and that includes people killed on the September 11 flights as well as a hijacking in 1994
You'll get in your car without worrying at all, even though the number of people killed in just one year on the roads is nearly 21 times more than the people who were killed in 20 years!
The general aviation rate of accidents is of course higher, and the total number of deaths in from 1990 to 2009 is 12,820. That's still around a third of the number of people killed in just one year on the roads.
I may be a little jaded, because I am a pilot myself. Yes, I know I can kill myself every time I fly. But I could kill myself driving, or I could get hit by a falling can of paint when I'm walking down the street, or whatever.
Flying, when the risks are managed properly, is safe. People said that ceilings were around 200 feet. Flying in those conditions is unsafe. Unfortunately for Stevens, that cost him his life.
- former cashier for CARR's
Enough small plane travel for this sporadic traveler!
Very generally flying is very safe. It has gotten safer over the years but it is still not absolutely perfectly safe and it never will be. It can't either.
But look at driving. I think it was yesterday, four motorcyclists were riding their bikes in Iowa and all four were killed by one of those gigantic pickup trucks that crossed the center line reportedly to pass a row of cars at a construction site. In the blink of an eye you can be slaughtered on the highway. *BLINK*
Plane crashes are more dramatic because usually more people die in them and they make for incredible pictures and stark video.
Flying small planes is inherently more dangerous than flying on commercial planes. A small plane, especially a small single engine plane, can get into and out of places that even a small jet can but they also have the human element.
The average private pilot doesn't have trained meteorologists tracking the weather and planning their flight path. They don't have a dedicated link to their dispatch and engineers that can provide assistance in case something bad happens.
Heck, in some airports, the private pilot calls for a WX briefing and then might check the tv or a computer (if their FBO has one) to see what might happen with the weather. They pre-flight their own plane, they fill it (or not. The most common accident (aside from 'controlled flight into ground or other obstacles) is running out of fuel) they sometimes even don't have a control tower to talk to as they take off.
Many small planes don't have transponders (although I think ALL planes should have them) and due to the number and cost, many need maintenance and upgrades that are beyond the reach of the owner(s).
It is true that the airline industry has been successful in lobbying the FAA on mandated upgrades and repairs to stall them, but it's gotten harder to drag their feet on vital updates/upgrades/inspections/repairs.
I myself hate to fly commercial. I took the bold step of taking pilot lessons to try to deal with my fear of flying and by taking ground school, learned a heck of a lot about how inherently safe a plane is, yet how unforgiving the laws of physics are.
Even on the safest plane on record, 'badness' can happen. Things can happen that are out of the design specs of the plane, or something that the designers and programmers hadn't thought would ever happen does.
I just pray now that IF there is an accident, that I don't survive.
I deal with my fears not by realizing that you can't drive a car to England, and a boat trip would take a week or more. You also can't drive to Hawaii or the Virgin Islands.
One thing, when I was taking lessons I was told that the worst time in our lives as pilots would happen when we had flown somewhere and the morning of the return the weather would get unexpectedly bad. The pressure would be on. Things like 'The kids can't miss school.' or 'I have an important meeting tomorrow' or 'someone has to get the dogs at the kennel because they don't have the room for another day'... The pressure will be on, and we will be tempted, goaded, browbeaten, into 'having to fly' on a day like that. He related a story about a good friend of his who gave in to that pressure. It was a severe IFR day. He took off on 0-0 weather with his wife and kids. He crashed less than 1,000 feet from the end of the runway. On the way down, his plane caught power lines and a clump of trees. He very likely didn't see them... Then he told a story about how he dealt with a similar situation, ironically a year before he lost his friend. He took his screaming and cussing wife to the airport and bought her and his kid a one-way ticket back home. They made it fine, the flight was actually late taking off due to the weather, and his wife felt how bad it was in a 'real plane'. When she got home, she apologized for being so nasty. It took him another three days until the weather got good enough to fly the plane back.
You can never totally remove the 'human element'. That is the weakest link...
But as for flying... I've had one landing due to smoke in the cockpit. Two separate flights with 'missed approaches'. Flown through two bouts of really bad weather (severe turbulence). Not bad for flying an average of 15 round trip flights to strange places each year now.
And how many close calls have I had while driving? Heck, just today I was passing a semi and he drifted over the center line as I was passing. My death would have been a postscript in the newspaper, and probably just a mention on the nightly news and the smear of me on the pavement wouldn't last a week...
Secondly, the coarsening of certain aspects of day to day life.
Regarding the former, in the US, commercial aviation is VERY safe. Excluding regional jets, it has been almost a decade since the last serious crash.
Per Wikipedia:
Deaths per billion passenger-kilometres Air 0.05 Bus 0.4 Rail 0.6 Van 1.2 Water 2.6 Car 3.1 Bicycle 44.6 Foot 54.2 Motorcycle 108.9
The implications of this is that it is 62 times as dangerous to fly across country than to drive across country.
Regional jets, I'm not so sure about, but they still tend to be safe.
General Aviation -- i.e. Small, unscheduled aircraft have a much worse record. Alaska is hell on general aviation air travelers.
Personally, I think Net Jets is very safe.
But, that isn't the point. If it doesn't feel safe, that counts for a lot.
As to the other point, the reason i hate flying is that it has gone from something akin to a special event, like staying in a good hotel to something more like the Greyhound Bus experience, with the added discomforts of being more cramped, etc.
It tends (to me) to be a fundamentally discomforting experience.
Corporate greed has absolutely nothing to do with it, since anyone with any financial sense would avoid the business of moving passengers like the plague. Perhaps it is stupid capitalists. I don't know. But they are fundamentally awful businesses, with the exception of Southwest.
So, yes.
But seriously, flying a big, commercial jet is as objectively safe as it gets on a male per mile basis.
Wanna improve your already excellent odds? Non stop.
Just saying.
And, @ Kathy --- I think we agree. Just trying to add some context.
My worst all time commercial flight vis a vis 'experience' was a packed plane on Friday afternoon that had the ambiance of the last flight from Saigon. Plus, there were two tickets (one very sketchy) for a single seat in the back close to me, causing a nasty argument.
The best was once when I was flying to Vegas for business. It was right after American started selling awful bag lunches to those feeling the necessity to eat.
Just to be a nice guy, I agreed to trade seats with someone to they could sit with another family member.
And then, a woman walked from the First Class cabin to talk to her friends, who I wan now seated next to. All of a sudden, she asked me if I would like to trade seats.
Hell yes.
I also won a little at the craps tables, which I then blew on other stuff in Vegas, my intention being to break even. The details stay in Vegas.
What you said about aviation today hit a nerve. Just tonight a friend and I were discussing how American air travel has declined, since Reagan de-regulated it. That aside, one is still safer flying in an airplane, than travelling on one of our interstates.
Hey! I live on aircraft large and small. Stop writing this kind of thing. You trying to scare me out of my livelihood? Geez. ;)
While I am saddened for those lost in Alaska, I cannot help but smile over the ridiculous story of another flight (this one less serious) concerning the fed-up flight attendant. Seems like travel by air truly isn't what it used to be...
http://jdrourke.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/dearest-rage-filled-flight-attendants/
I did not agree with Senator Stevens on political issues, but it is a shame for a man to go in such a manner, and I feel sorry for his family.l
And Kathy, I hear you. I feel like many trips I'd like to take are being ruled out. For someone with slightly agoraphobic tendencies, it was trying anyway. But now? It's become of a haven of rudeness and ineptitude and greed. (That's what's behind all the shortcuts, afterall, isn't it? It's not just about safety - it's about major airlines constantly cutting corners.)
It is sad. This piece reminded me of some of my early travel experiences, which were exciting and decent. Now it's a nightmare.
I mourn with you.
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/
Chance of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319
Odds of bowling a 300 game: 11,500 to 1
Odds of getting a hole in one: 5,000 to 1
Odds of injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1
Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1
Odds of injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1
Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1
Odds of being murdered: 18,000 to 1
Odds of being audited by the IRS: 175 to 1
Odds of dating a millionaire: 215 to 1
Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1
Chance of dying from being bitten by a dog: 1 in 700,000
Chance of American man developing cancer in his lifetime: 1 in 2
Chance of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime: 1 in 3
Odds of a meteor landing on your house: 182,138,880,000,000 to 1
As someone who drives over 125k miles a year, when I'm going on vacation, I fly. I want to get there alive.
driving is not more comfortable. unless your destination is within a few hundred miles, driving is just as uncomfortable - just in different ways. you get more independence - that's the main benefit - you get to decide when you go, when you stop, etc. but it's not really comfortable to drive 10 hours for most people.
you fondly remember linen and silverin coach. the economics are different now. if you want that, buy a first class ticket, right? :)
flying is the way it is now because it's become a commodity. more people fly now than ever before - and that's a good thing. but that means it's essentially become like public transit.
we are not entitled to commercial aviation. it's a free market. vote with your purse. unfortunately, i don't think your purse will get you very far without a plane to carry it. ;)
and btw - you say that your article is not about safety... yet it's all about air crashes and people who died in them. it's an odd
Flying is greath and any possible death is most likely instant so no need to worry about it.
A very cursory look at the facts revealed by the NTSB shows that the aircraft was a DeHavilland DHC-3T Turboprop flying VFR (visual flight rules) with no flight plan. When you think of safety, you may want to think more about how the aircraft is equipped, the Federal Aviation Rules it is being operated under (Part91,135, 121) and the qualifications of the pilot in command. Flying in mountainous terrain, especially when weather obscures the terrain, is challenging. Major airlines operate under FAR 121 and fly under a IFR (instrument flight Rules) flight plan. This allows flight in the clouds along published routes with minimum altitudes, concluding with an instrument approache guiding the aircraft to the runway. Because terrain frequently obstructs the straight path to the runway, airlines are transitioning to a system which uses GPS input to fly arc paths to challenging airports. Alaska Airlines has been a leader in this development.
The NTSB preliminary report states that the aircraft was not GPS equiped. A passenger stated that the flight was "flying along and they just stopped flying." I will await the final conclusion of the NTSB, but comment that CFIT (Controlled flight into terrain) is a major issue for world air safety. A major tool to assist the pilot in terrain awareness is the ground proximity warning system. The 757 uses a world wide data base which show the pilot in colors whether the aircraft is above or below terrain and will generate a very loud aural warning if the aircraft is projected to impact. Some small aircraft could be equipped with this. Other safety items which vary but have nothing to do with aircraft size are weather radar, wing and engine de-ice capability, TCAS (shows other transponder equipped aircraft to the pilot and generates a aural collision warning and climb or descend command to avoid). Many "small" regional jets and turboprops are quite sophisticated and well equipped, so size is not so much a determiner of safety as equipment and the knowledge and skill of the pilot in command to use it.
On August 13, 2010 Kathy Riordan states " but flying was for many years much less expensive than it is now." In 1975, I bought a round trip ticket on Delta from Los Angeles to Pennsacola, Florida for $300. In June of this year, I bought a round trip (non-stop, daytime) for my brother from Los Angeles to Boston for $340. I did a search on Bing: Paris to New York in 1953 "This says it all" which shows a copy of a ticket from Paris to NY at $295 on TWA. Since American bought TWA, I looked at a trip on AA Flight 44 from JFK to Paris CDG, September 28, 2010 and returning a month later on flight #121. The trip out was $333, return $331, taxes and fees $115...or an average one way price of$387 in 2010 dollars.
For an interesting analsis of the cost of flying vs. inflation see, in Bing: "airline industry has been pushed off a cliff". I was reading an airticle about Southwest Airlines sometime in the past that amazed me. Southwest's operational philosphy is that flying must be cheaper than driving.
I know the airplanes are packed. Most pilots love flying in a way that defies logic. I wish the flying experience would be one that people could love because it can be very special. I really wish we did not have a locked door and you could come up and see the landing. All I can do is to remember that each one of my passengers is special and to look out for their safety and comfort on the trips I fly.
First let me state i grew up on mainland europe/ the netherlands
While i am not afraid of flying at all i prefer when possible i prefer to take the train.
There is far less hassle securety wise and the railroad stations are closer to the towns then the airports.
The high speed trains like going to london also either break even or are faster then flying doorstep to central london and the same goes for paris and most big germand towns.
So there is no NEED to fly manny times.