Originally Posted by
stimpy
You are right that it is human nature, but you just have to rise up above your animalistic fear. I recall back in 2000 I flew on an AS MD80 right after another one of their MD-80's crashed into the Pacific. That one really captured the public's imagination as the other airplanes in the area saw the plane flying upside down and heading for the ocean. People thought about the horror of being on that plane flying upside down for a long time before they crashed.
I was of the opinion that there was no safer time in history to be flying an Alaska MD-80. All the aviation-world's attention was on those planes and horizontal stabilizer. However there was a woman sitting next to me who was trembling and crying at each moment of turbulence. It is undeniably human nature. But you don't have to succumb to that. I expect that in due time there will be some kind of information released that leads people to feeling safe again to fly the B738Max.
I think this depends on how quickly they establish the cause of the accident. If they knew, a couple of days after the first crash that the AS incident was caused by a erosion on the jackscrew, then I think it would be right to assume all other jackscrews has been inspected and cleared (or replaced). But until that time how could anyone argue the plane was safe? (The problem coud be replicated in other aricraft.)
Histroy has shown it's not always 'safer than ever' to fly immediately after another accident... the Comets, DC-10s, Malaysia Airlines, and now perhaps the MAX.
Until the cause is established we don't know if the problem is sitting there on every other plane (or airline SOP if the issue is caused by an airline rather than the plane itself).
There are two camps here. One refuse to speculate and will keep flying. The other will stop flying (that plane/airline) until the cause is established. I'm in the camp that the latter is simply taking precautions to protect safety and peace of mind. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.