With the recent crash of the Nepalese airplane, I saw a lot of comments on :reddit-logo: talking about how Nepal has poor safety standards, bad piloting certifications, and how they buy second to third hand planes that they don’t maintain.

I’m sure that has nothing to do with capitalism.

But I also saw comments about how Euro and American standards are much, much better. I’m sure that’s true to some extent, given how many airplanes fly over these regions with so few incidents. But… I don’t really see why.

Wouldn’t the center of capitalism be more aggressive with its cost-cutting measures and safety shortcuts? It would improve their profit margins and given the Tendency, they have to take every chance they get, right?

Are we just waiting for a huge, huge sudden spike in airplane crashes as these measures start catching up?

Or is government regulation (and enforcement) still somehow strong in this industry?

    • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Planes are still extremely safe as of now. Plane crashes are kinda like terrorist attacks in that they're very, very rare, but people are scared of them because of how spectacular they are when they do happen and the media coverage they get.

      The media coverage they get is kind of a testament to how safe they are. Nobody gives a shit if a family of 4 dies in a car accident because it happens basically every day, but a plane crash? Now that's an event.

      As of right now, there's no need to be afraid when going on a plane. They still have a morbillion safety precautions in place, have 2 trained pilots in charge and are supervised by like 20 people at the airports. A lot of people need to fuck up at the same time for any issues to occur, and even more people need to fuck up at the same time for a harrowing plane crash to happen that will make the news.

      It's not a "real danger". The odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million (for comparison, odds of dying in a car accident are 1 in 5000). That's somewhere in the ballpark of getting struck by lightning.

      Edit: I know this isn't exactly what the thread was about, the concern about airplane safety under capitalism is warranted, I just wanted to calm people with flight anxiety down a bit.

      • LiberalSocialist [any,they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I have a lot of flight anxiety, despite needing to fly semi-regularly. Thanks for your comment :soviet-heart:

    • grey_wolf_whenever [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I have horrible flight anxiety, and post pandemic its a lot worse, mostly because I know this stuff.