SilverSpy57

Hello everyone. I am considering purchasing a flight from LAX-CDG on Air France via DAL.

I am concerned about the AF's long history of flight incidents, including AF447. I know I am being paranoid but I am just worried - I told myself I wouldn't fly AF unless necessary.

Anyone have experience with AF and can please give me some insight re: safety/flight experience? Something to calm my nerves before I book...thanks!

San Gottardo

Absolutely nothing to worry about!

Worcester

In North American and the EU there really is not such a thing as and unsafe airline, the regulation is so tight AirFrance is no exemption. It really is true that you are more at risk driving to the airport.

caliform

To ease your mind, here's some odds: (odds of dying of...)

Cardiovascular disease: 1 in 2

Smoking (by/before age 35): 1 in 600

Car trip, coast-to-coast: 1 in 14,000

Bicycle accident: 1 in 88,000

Tornado: 1 in 450,000

Train, coast-to-coast: 1 in 1,000,000

Lightning: 1 in 1.9 million

Bee sting: 1 in 5.5 million

U.S. commercial jet airline: 1 in 7 million

...

And that's just regular U.S. commercial jet airlines. The odds of being on a flight with Air France with any kind of issue is closer to 1 in 10 million.

You are much more likely to be randomly hit by lightning than to have anything go even slightly wrong on a flight. In fact, today is the safest air transportation has ever been. Air France doesn't have a bad history in the slightest, are extremely particular and thorough in maintenance and fly very new planes with excellent safety histories and no known issues. You are going to be OK .

San Gottardo

Or put differently: you are more likely to be hit by a bus in front of the entrance to the terminal or by another passenger with his luggage cart than be involved in any sort of incident as a passenger on a commercial flight, Air France or other.

SilverSpy57

Thank you all! I reviewed the long list of AF incidents, and boy they have SO MANY. It's ridiculous. I was going to fly LAX-CDG on AF, and then KLM on the way back stopping in AMS. Thoughts?

Yes there's a non-stop from CDG-LAX

ranskis

You've not heard about KLM accident in Tenerife? I would not take such a risk to fly CDG LAX via AMS! also you could end up on an AF operated flight from CDG to AMS, as scary as it can be! On the other hand, the more flights you take, the more risk you take... so perhaps a direct flight would be less risky?

JumboJet

I think they are pretty safe.

WorldLux

History begs to differ. There are certainly airlines that don't take regulations as seriously and accidents do happen. Unfortunately regulation violations are often only detected after things go wrong.

That said, I would fully trust all North American and EU carriers when it comes to safety.

ACYYZ/SD

It is because of the very incidents to which you refer that the level of safety vigilance has been highly elevated at AF. Fly with confidence.

WorldLux

In the last three decades, they had 8 major incidents/accidents (3 in the 00s and 5 in the 90s). You can't really blame them for the Concorde accident. The Toronto crash landing IMO actually proves that the security rules worked: Nobody died. Only major F up in the 00s was AF447 that can be calked up to poor pilot training and technical problems.

Going back the the 90s now: 1 Freighter crash, 1 high-jacking, 1 aircraft encountering turbulences, 1 wet lease crashed, 1 crash landing with no casualties.

Overall I wouldn't describe the recent past of AF as troublesome when it comes to safety, just as I wouldn't refrain from booking KL (cf. Tenerife crash) or JL (cf. JL123).

Zembla

I agree with the replies above. You couldn't choose a safer form of travel, and that includes AF. It's more likely that you'll be hit by lightning than being in an AF incident.

I hope all the replies are clear, they're all of the same vein: It's safer than safe! In case you'd like to know/hear other things you've got to be more specific.

Ber2dca

AF might have (had) some culture issues that could in some circumstances make accidents more likely *but* I would say you take a bigger risk every time you step on board of some regional airline's "express" flight in the U.S..

The shortcomings of those operators aren't exactly secret, yet people feel 'safe' because it's just a short flight even though the most accident-prone times are arrival and departure - and even a EWR-DCA flight needs to take off and land.

orbitmic

If you're worried don't fly them. Fear is irrational, yours included, but not worth screwing up your trip.

SilverSpy57

well I didnt book that trip. I am flying LAX CDG and CDG LAX non-stop each way on AF. I decided I cant deal with layovers anymore. I did that with my trip to Athens recently on KLM. Nope nope. No more.

I've flown on FlyBe and RyanAir and I wasn't afraid LOL.