[rob74]

If you asked somebody in the sixties whether it would be possible to have no airplane crashes, they would have laughed at you. And yet, the last crash of a commercial flight in the US is now 14 years ago.

Of course, if everyone agrees that a goal isn't achievable (or it's not worth the effort to achieve it), then it will never be achieved...

[The_Colonel]

Airliner safety boggles my mind. It's sort of banal, but mastering of such a complex system in a safe way is also one of the greatest achievements of human kind. So many things which can go wrong, yet it works.

[AmericanChopper]

This proves the exact opposite of what you think it proves. Planes crash all the time. Commercial planes also crash all the time if you want to be extra specific.

[abenga]

Commercial Airline flights definitely don't crash "all the time."

[singleshot_]

Gonna need you guys to read CFR 61 and 141 real quick or this discussion is going to languish. More or less: scheduled commercial airline service like American Airlines 587 which crashed into NYC shortly after 9/11 falls under part 141 and crashes are extremely rare.

However, certain commercial operations like air taxis and flight instruction fall under the much less restrictive part 61 and there are tons of incidents all the time.

Original poster meant to say part 141 has been very good at making airline safely profoundly good lately.