In forums and conversations since the tragic Germanwings crash, people have been lamenting that flying has become more dangerous. One person sad to me “you hear of all of these crashes and you wonder of its safe to travel anywhere”

The word “hear” is an important one. I am old enough to remember Entebbe in 1976 when terrorists seized and diverted an Air France plane. The astonishing crash between two 747s in 1977. In 1985 there were multiple hijackings, bombings and crashes including the horrific  Japan Airlines  747, crash into Mount Osutaka which  killed 520 of 524 people on board,  the worst single-aircraft disaster in history. 1996 saw the downing of Valujet into the Florida glades. etc etc

But with a different news cycle and no social media, these crashes made it onto the news for a short time and then faded. Today, we have live crosses, tweets, Facebook posts and continually updated stories. It feels to the general public that flying has become more dangerous. This is despite the reality that flying is safer than ever. While there are more people flying, there are actually fewer accidents and much lower deaths than there were a decade ago.

planecrashinfo.com

How do we shift the perception that flying has become more dangerous? Do we need to?