Well, that may still be a little speculative at the moment, but in the sense that BA could pick up a bad reputation with this cluster of incidents - irrespective of cause or fault - you're absolutely right. We've certainly seen that with MH where the second (possibly more reputationally damaging) incident was essentially nothing to do with anything they were doing differently to many other airlines.

I don't suppose there's particularly any figures available for how badly affected both AF and MH have been, but the fear of being in an aircraft crash unquestionably provokes a level of irrational anxiety that's more out of proportion to the real risk than most other comparable situations. Perception of safety becomes all consuming, and decisions are made based on it.

What may count in BA's favour is that in every recent case the pilots and crew have emerged with great credit - that's in stark contrast to AF447 where the inexperience and training of some of the crew was a direct factor in the sad loss of all souls, to the first MH incident which pretty solidly points towards pilot action, and to LH's lack of effective monitoring of Andreas Lubitz.