From Air Transportation, Eighth Edition:

"As Robert Serling points out in the concluding paragraph of his book The Probable Cause, if a passenger was born on an airliner and flew continuously during his entire lifetime, he could not expect to be involved in a fatal crash until he reached the age of seventy six years."

"Serling also noted that, based on the accident rate over the past several years, a passenger could fly more than 300 million miles on a certificated U.S. air carrier without being involved in an accident"

Folks, it is still the safest mode of transportation. I am much more fearful of driving in Southern California than flying on any day of the week.

Not much comfort to Alaska 261's unfortunate crew and pax, but that incident has no statistical bearing on your next flight.

That is my $.02 worth.