OccasionalFlyerPerson

I've yet again been told 'you are more likely to have an accident on the way to the airport than you are to be in a plane accident.'

So, has anyone ever been involved in an accident on the way to an airport?

I've seen people say that they've been in a plane accident, but never anyone having been in an accident on the way to the airport.

EDIT: I just googled, and I did find evidence of many accidents and even deaths on the way to an airport. Including shuttle bus accidents. So, maybe it is true after all.

Though, it seems the claim that more people are kicked to death by donkeys than are killed in plane crashes is false. http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/donkey.asp

studentff

Yes. I was involved in a "minor" accident that did $5000 damage to a compact rental car on the way to the airport.

I think I left the rental car counter (after being towed to the airport and resolving everything) about 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure. This was pre-smartphone so I couldn't check in from the road. I lost my seat assignment, but I did make it to the flight in time to get a middle seat in the back and keep my flight schedule.

The main "trick" I used to get to the flight was not haggling with the check-in desk over giving me a BP for the scheduled flight; I just asked for a standby card for the next flight to use as a way to get past security. Once I made it to the gate, they had no problem converting me to "standby" on my original flight and putting me in a seat.

Boggie Dog

Just a quick google search says this:

The odds of none of those being someone taking a trip to the airport are slim.

The point is that flying a commercial flight is very safe and usually considered a great deal safer than driving a vehicle.

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kennycrudup

Yeah. It's been 20 years by now though. Still made my flight even (it was before I was a FF and still thought I had to get to the airport super early).

gwade

A slightly funny story looking back. Was heading back home leaving AUS in a rental car. I drove through departures to drop off my companion with a ton of luggage, and then was going to circle back to drop off the rental car. While sitting there, a clueless Suburban driver kindly backed right over the top of the hood. Since it wasn't my car, I had a pretty good time with the driver and everyone there just watched with googly eyes. She wanted my information which I politely declined (hell, I wasn't even moving and it wasn't my car), but I got hers and informed her she might just want to meet me at rental car return as they would want to talk to her. She was so annoyed that she didn't have my information, she actually left her car and walked across to the parking lot to "meet me" at drop off. The check in dude laughed so hard when he heard the story, and sent me to the window. At the window, the driver kept trying to "lean in" and see what was going on. I just filled out the accident report and said "here is the women you want to talk to."

Walked over to the terminal and never heard anything again.

notquiteaff

I have never been involved in a plane accident. I have never been involved in a car accident on the way to the airport.

So, that means it's impossible to be involved in either one?

econjon

We were in a car accident on the way to PVR airport this past January. We were rear ended by a cab. Fortunately we were all ok. Including 3 year old and a baby.

The rental car company told us to wait there until they came to inspect. We waited 30 minutes but there was too much traffic for them to get there fast. I wasn't willing to miss our flight. So I told them I would leave the car at the airport and they could sort it all out. Needless to say they had a guy looking for us when we got to the airport off ramp!

AFAM-DFW

Was in a minor accident as passenger on my way to PBI. Police paperwork delay made me miss my flight. Called AA to reschedule, told what happened and AA waived all fees but asked that I bring a copy of police report to the airport in case the ticket counter wanted to see it. They didn't.

In general, aa has always treated me well but with a few fails.

OccasionalFlyerPerson

I have no idea how you reach your conclusion from your premises. Can you please explain?

Clearly it's possible to be involved in both, either one, or none. I've just started a straw poll concerning accidents on the way to the hospital in response to the claim about accidents.

Boggie Dog

I wonder how many planes have crashed into cars on the way to the airport?

notquiteaff

The point is, a straw poll among a few dozen FTers doesn't give you any more meaningful results than just polling me and extrapolating from that

More data: just dropped my wife off at the airport. No accident to/fro. Will update if her flight has an accident (so far looking good).

OccasionalFlyerPerson

Erm, it doesn't give me anything conclusive, but it certainly gives me more meaningful results than polling a single person.

Have you seen the formula for the standard error of the mean? A survey of four people will give half the error of a survey of one. A survey of nine people will give me one third of the error of a survey of one.



A survey of 36 people will give me an expected error of one sixth of that obtained by polling one person.

There are quite a few people reading threads. A straw poll here isn't conclusive (nor did I expect it to be.) But, it's going to be an order of magnitude better than polling one person.

KathinJax

I have not been involved in a car accident on the way to/from the airport, but I was on a Piedmont Airlines plane in Charlotte that had an plane/auto accident. It hit a truck (fueling?) when we were pushing back from the gate. We had already been delayed for 3 hours because of snowstorms. We were delayed another couple of hours that it took them to fix the lights that were broken from the impact.

I have always counted that as a plane accident, but maybe I need to include that in auto accidents as well?

JumboJet

I had an 8 car pileup right in front of me on the Hutchinson River Parkway driving to EWR one time. I escaped the carnage and drove around it thinking it was going to be hours of fire department, hazmat, towing companies and paperwork.

I was also once in a Tower Air 747 and while taxing the wing hit the tail of an AA MD-80 at SJU. We had to deboard and wait for the FAA and NTSB people. We then got on the same plane and flew to JFK. The pilot looked drunk to me.

Woofbite

Well yes. On a mission trip from DFW to Honduras years ago, van was struck by another car on return to SAP. Nobody hurt but a delay while police were called to investigate. Arrived at airport with about 30 minutes until departure and CO refused 15 passengers due too past their cutoff time. Talked to AA about a flight an hour later and they took group and then sent flight attendant to Burger King for add additional "catering" on the flight. First, (and last), time I've ever seen that happen.