[keraf]

Having spent a lot of time at a hangar at international airport in Africa and flying there, I can say that there's a thin line between crashes and incidents that could have resulted in a disaster. The former being extremely rare while the latter occurs so frequently it's scary. Between pilot errors, ATC mistakes and bad aircraft/airport maintenance, I've witnessed and heard of many near misses and incidents that have miraculously not turned into something worse. Passengers are completely oblivious what they narrowly escaped.

I often talk about my experience to my peers in Europe. They have similar stories, albeit not happening as frequently. Looking at accident reports on Aviation Safety Network [0] and breakdowns on YouTube such as videos from Mentour Pilot [1], some of the factors that contributed to crashes still occur frequently without resulting in an accident. It's usually a combination of multiple failures that lead to it. My flight instructor used to tell me, every aggravating factor (i.e. lack of sleep, low fuel quantity, complacency, assumptions, etc.) fills a glass which leaves less and less space to luck until it runs over.

[0] https://asn.flightsafety.org/ [1] https://www.youtube.com/@MentourPilot

[jwkpiano1]

What you’re referring to is called the Swiss cheese model, and the many layers that comprise its design are critical to ensuring safety. It’s precisely due to this design that air travel is so safe. Cars are not designed with nearly as many backup systems.