How Worried Should We Really Be About Airplane Safety Right Now?

29.03.2024 - 15:01 / afar.com / Dave Calhoun / Mike Whitaker / Airlines

A mid-air scare on Alaska Airlines. A rapid descent of another jumbo jet that sent some passengers hurtling into cabin ceilings and seat backs. A cascade of incidents on United Airlines airplanes that caught regulators’ attention. And all of this happened within the first few months of 2024.

Aircraft safety has become the topic du jour, not to mention the butt of scorn on late-night TV. It’s no wonder that passengers are confused and perhaps leery of hopping on an airplane anytime soon. But should they be?

Many experts are cautioning that this may be a classic case of hysteria taking over a story.

“It’s getting blown out of proportion,” says Michael Derchin, a longtime airline analyst. “And it’s sad because it could be causing some people to avoid flying, if they don’t have all the facts.”

And many observers point out there have been no commercial airline passenger fatalities in these recent events.

There’s no concrete evidence to suggest that mass numbers of fliers are booking away from Boeing models or airlines in general in any way. And it’s unclear if the rapid succession of incidents indicates a broader trend, or if the timing is just a coincidence. Many involve a Boeing aircraft, but not all, and that in itself isn’t evidence of a design flaw: Most jet planes in commercial service are produced by the world’s dominant manufacturer.

To be sure, the specifics can sound alarming: Boeing again is at the center of the storm, five years after a worldwide grounding of the troubled Boeing 737 Max shook up the industry following two deadly crashes. Now it’s under the microscope again for a slew of alleged safety lapses that, regulators and safety experts say, contributed to the harrowing January 5 episode aboard an Alaska Airlines plane in which a door plug panel blew out of a 737-9 Max mid-flight. The fallout continues; just this week, Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun resigned, along with other top officials. That came after revelations that the manufacturer is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the Department of Justice, which has launched a criminal investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.

“When we are talking about Boeing, this is really unprecedented, they have lost a lot of the credibility that they spent 80 years building,” says William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. But he adds that he is heartened by the strong response from the FAA under its new administrator Mike Whitaker in its supervision of the company. “While you could argue that what happened [to the Alaska Airlines plane] was unforgivable, it’s not an option to let Boeing fail,” he says,