http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/avia...nair-boss.html

LOL
Wish I could be as outspoken without feeling bad-but then I'm not rich enough !

Actually, having been hooked recently on watching Aircrash investigation, I agree that seatbelts are pretty much useless in an emergency landing, although in case of turbulence, they can save lives.
The majority of the crashes occurred because of plane malfunctioning due to poor maintenance and human error.
The survival chances are much higher if you are seated at the very end of the plane and if you are short. In the Guam aircrash a 9 year old child survived but her mother although injured, had both legs broken and could not get out. The girl's legs did not touch the metal bar and in spite of a passenger lobbying all the airlines, is still there. Profit is more important than lives.
It was also concluded that due to high turnover of flights and the pressure to be on time, with cheap airlines, maintenance suffers.

Ryanair bring up the standing room only argument occasionally; I'm sure they'll get there eventually. Don't fancy it myself much, just as I don't like standing up on a bus ..

Oh goodness I watch that too. OH keeps asking me how I can watch it knowing that he's always on one plane or another and the kids and I are as well two or three times a year. Some of the programmes are from very old crashes and I like seeing what new measures and improvements have been put in place.

I also learnt that no matter how panicked you might be, never ever inflate your life-jacket whilst still inside the plane!

I wouldn't want standing room on a flight anyway. I'm not standing up for over 2 hours.

DS(9) got me hooked on watching this. He is obsessed with planes and safety and says when he grows up he will be an air crash investigator.
I also asked him how can he watch this and not be scared to go on a plane and he answered:'mum, all those crashes happened in the past and from every crash they learned how to improve safety'.
Have you seen the one with the Russian school kids who were flying to Barcelona and their plane had a mid-air crash with a DHL plane?
DD watched it yesterday( she gets hooked too) and she said that she cried when the father found his daughter's bead necklace and then his dead daughter after the crash. Having lost his wife and 2 kids, he then killed the Swiss air traffic controller, who really was not to blame.Heartbreaking.

Ryanair (cheap) - no fatal accidents
Alitalia (definitely not cheap) - 8 fatal accidents and one a/c lost in a ground fire

I would not compare Alitalia with any airline Chris. Anyway, the data was taken based on flights in the States mainly. Maybe Ryan Air has really motivated and well paid engineers? Well, I hope so as I use them sometimes too.

The thing is that the B737 is one of the most robust a/c ever made; it cantake punishment (and lack of maintenance) and keep going. For instance the Aloha Airlines Flight 243 incident.

Do not mean to scare anyone:
http://airsafe.com/events/models/b737.htm
http://www.b737.org.uk/accident_reports.htm

OK, some are hijackings and some human error.....

I watched the Helios flight 522, scary...

QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed.

Just waiting for them to open up a Verona to Gatwick route...

I'm an excellent driver.

Are you offering to 'drive' the plane, Duffer?

There's always a first time.

I ain't gettin on no plane!