Alaska: Not The Safest Place For Airplanes (?)
in [Airline Travel]
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From: Mxsmanic on 10 Aug 2010 13:13 Robert Cohen writes: > obviously: > > complex weather, fuggers literally freeze-up when those scary glaciers > aren't melting more > tricky, mountainous terrain > difficult highways as alternatives > > what fearful predictable contributing risk factors am I not figuring ? Lots of unofficial (unlicensed) and underqualified pilots. Since it's so hard to get around on the ground (and sometimes impossible), aircraft are much more widely used in Alaska than they are in other States, and many of the people using them aren't necessarily licensed pilots with 5000 hours of experience. Additionally, the aircraft themselves are not necessarily always in tip-top condition. This is inevitable when air travel becomes as useful and necessary as it has in Alaska. Traveling by airplane becomes more "democratized," if you will, and more accessible, but at the same time, standards of safety suffer ... essentially aviation slides towards the situation we have elsewhere for road vehicles. A larger and more diverse population flies in Alaska, which drives down the average level of competence and (sometimes) legality. |