MACOMB, Illinois – When I took my first flight, I wasn’t scared at all. I was reassured by my mom that nothing bad would happen. Looking back on that, it’s a little surprising that it worked. Most people would be scared of flying and concerned about what could happen. I mean, it’s thousands of miles in the sky, what’s not a little frightening about that? Especially after a national tragedy. Recently, there have been multiple tragic plane crash incidents where many lives were lost that were heavily publicized. Which is enough to make any person anxious about flying.
Close to the start of the year, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into Flight 5342 in Washington DC on Jan. 29. It was widely publicized and there were thousands of people covering the story on social media. With all the sudden publicity, more and more plane crashes began to be covered in the news and online. It made it seem like plane crashes are getting more frequent and deadly. But are they really? Or is it just the coverage of one fatal crash making it seem that way?
The death toll totals 67 lives lost; 3 soldiers from the Black Hawk and 64 on board the plane, according to CNN. In an article, a CNN reporter sat down with former Black Hawk Pilot Elizabeth McCormick to discuss what went wrong. McCormick outlined three things that went wrong at crucial moments and how it resulted in the incident: they only had three of four crew members intended to fly the aircraft, flight control did not specify which aircraft to look out for and the helicopter was off course by about 200 ft.
“Air traffic control said, ‘Do you have the CRJ in sight?’ Well there were two aircraft in their field of view.” McCormick explains, “One was really obvious to them,” referring to the aircraft seen in the foreground of the video taking off. “Which is probably the one that they were facing… The air traffic control should’ve said: ‘Do you have the aircraft at 5:00 o’clock?’ So they were looking at the rear… They were supposed to be at 200 which is the helicopter routing in that area, and it wouldn’t have been a conflict, but they were not at 200 ft. Obviously, reportedly, the incident happened around 350-400 ft as the airliner was descending.”
It seems that this tragedy was a miscommunication, and with no clear answer that satisfies the public, they’re left to speculate whether or not planes are safe.
Along with the Black Hawk collision, there was a crash in a Philadelphia neighborhood with 7 fatalities, another small plane crashed in Alaska with 10 fatalities, two single-engine planes collided midair outside an airport in Arizona, which killed two people and a private jet collision with 2 fatalities, USAToday reports. As well as a crash at Montreal where an airplane flipped. It was non-fatal, 19 taken to the hospital for injuries, CNN reports.
That’s a death toll collectively of 86 people just between the months of January and February. With the public beginning to fear planes, President Donald Trump held a briefing.
Trump was asked by a Associated Press reporter, “Are you saying this crash was somehow caused as the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”
He responded with, “It could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else.” He continues on to say that his policies are better and that “Biden went by a standard that seeks the exact opposite.”
This is not founded on any real statistics or knowledge, because planes are actually safer than ever. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, plane crashes are actually at an all time low. In 2022, there was a 10% decrease in crashes as well as a 65% decrease in fatalities from accidents.
There’s just an increase of media coverage and focus on it.
You are safer than I was on that plane in 2014, and you should have faith in your pilot’s abilities. The next time you get on a plane, focus less on the articles and more on the actual facts.