Words of Worry

Safety is important, but so is the perception that we’re not off our rockers

There are two or three days every month that I have come to dread. For it is on these days that I compile and review the NTSB’s reports of aviation accidents for the previous month.

It is morbid. It is depressing. It puts me in a foul mood. My family hates these days just as much.

Over the years I’ve followed this routine, I have become jaded and insensitive. I call people idiots – and worse – for transgressions such as pushing a long landing instead of going around, and winding up in the trees. Somehow, I would hope to have more compassion.

Perhaps what bothers me the most is that the record offers incontrovertible proof that this flying thing can be a risky venture. Few people pla...