“There has never been a safer means of transport than an airplane in the history of humanity,” writes my colleague Marco Evers in the current SPIEGEL. In 1958, according to Airbus figures, there were almost twelve fatal accidents per million takeoffs. By 2022, this metric has fallen to 0.01.
The bad news is also reported by my knowledgeable colleague: “Well, the struggle for even more security obviously has its limits. The residual risk when flying may be tiny, but it is there. And there is a fear that it will grow because air traffic is growing.
Dangers now lurk less above the clouds than on the ground. Collisions on runways can end badly, for example when large jets collide at high speeds, often with more than 100,000 liters of fuel in the tanks. The collision at Tokyo's Haneda Airport in early January is an example of this. The crash was comparatively mild.
“Modern commercial aircraft are often more vulnerable on the ground than during flight,” explains Marco: “Above the clouds, automated systems warn the pilots if there is a risk of a collision with mountains or other machines. In all current aircraft models, with the exception of Boeing's aging 737 series, computers prevent pilots from accidentally putting their plane in a dangerous attitude. However, there are no such safeguards on runways. It becomes dangerous as soon as verbal communication between the cockpit and the tower fails because one of those involved makes a mistake.
There have been a surprising number of such misunderstandings at US airports in the recent past, both on the ground and in the air - within a year there were apparently around 300 near-crashes in the US, according to the New York Times.
You can read the article here.
Arrive safely at your destination!
Kind regards
, Julia Koch
I also recommend you:
Chunks of rock over Brandenburg:
The Hungarian amateur astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky discovered the asteroid that broke up over Berlin - and hundreds of other celestial bodies that regularly elude NASA. How does he manage that?
To the executioner!
Documents from the 18th century have emerged in Bad Waldsee in Upper Swabia, according to which the widow of an executioner may have executed a thief with the sword. Was she really the only woman in Europe who judged with the sword?
Hope for the deaf:
Göttingen neuroscientists have created the basis for gene therapy against hearing loss and deafness. Now the treatment has been tested in humans for the first time. What's next?
Heaven, how beautiful:
A telescope has mapped hundreds of thousands of actually invisible objects. The unique image shows details of distant suns, black holes and our home galaxy.
Better cool:
Despite the icy cold, Homo sapiens lived in northern Europe much earlier than previously thought. This is proven by bone remains from a cave in Germany. The landscape back then probably looked like the steppes in what is now Siberia.
Flat nose, early death:
Small dogs with elongated snouts like miniature dachshunds live the longest, researchers report. But Labradors also do well in the ranking. Pugs, on the other hand, live with particular health risks.
Who was Andreas Mandalka?
A well-known cycling activist died in an accident near Pforzheim - people who are fighting for a different transport policy are mourning in many places.
Picture of the week
In a laboratory at the University del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia,
a bee is administered a substance that is intended to protect bees and other pollinators from damage caused by pesticides. The antidote is based on a flower dye that biologist Andre Riveros has applied for a patent for pollinator protection. Although common insecticides do not kill bees directly, they can impair cognitive functions such as sense of direction.
(Feedback & suggestions?)