Controlled flight into terrain.

[piece-it pete]

The #1 cause of airplane crashes worldwide.

Consider the description. Gotta love those enginneers!!

I was watching a show on airplane crashes last night (nova), and the most interesting thing, after the above description (which is still cracking me up today, even though I fly pretty often), is the way the FFA decides new safety equipment guidelines.

Called cost/benefit analysis, it works this way:

Total cost/person killed due to part/system failure in question (currently 2.5 mil/person!) x number of people killed due to same

vs.

Cost of part/system upgrade in consideration.

This is insurance-driven.

Now that's cold! And at 1st blush I was unhappy about it. But then, it makes sense, these things cost mil upon mil. I loved the one manufacturer shilling their new part, saying it "only costs $.87 per ticket". That's for EVERY TICKET SOLD in the US, that's a lot of tickets! I can see those people $.87 centsing us to death.

So even though I'm surprised commie-pinko-hippie-faags ( I'm kidding here!!) aren't picketing in the streets about it (maybe they don't know) I agree it seems a good system.

Just thought it was interesting!

Pete