txp

Hello, fellow travelers,

I'm reaching out for insights on United Airlines' safety, hoping to ease some recent concerns of mine. My message is grounded in genuine curiosity and a desire for reassurance rather than criticism.

A bit about my flying history to give context: My aviation journey began in the early 1980s on a trans-Atlantic flight operated by a DC-10, an aircraft whose safety record left much to be desired. Those days, the anxiety of flying was palpable for me, influenced heavily by the aviation disasters of the time. Over the years, my confidence in air travel grew thanks to improving safety records across the industry. By the 2010s, my fears had all but vanished, supported by statistics showing a significant decline in aviation fatalities.

However, recent incidents involving United Airlines have reignited my apprehension. With five occurrences in just under two weeks, I can't help but ponder if these are mere coincidences or if they suggest deeper issues within the airline, such as cultural, maintenance, or leadership challenges.

I understand that, statistically, air travel remains extremely safe, especially in North America, the EU, and similar regions. Yet, the frequency of these recent events has led to a resurgence of my 1980s flying anxieties, specifically when considering flying with United.

I'm eager to hear your thoughts and experiences. Is my unease unfounded? Your perspectives would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights.

uanj

As a kid in the 70s it seemed like there were plane crashes somewhere every month. And basically there were.

Today media is a 24/7 business that needs to make headlines every hour. Some things being covered are newsworthy but frankly many are not. Media, especially social media, need to make everything a headline and push news to us constantly. The internet has made the delivery of these headlines much easier, nearly instantaneous. With so many media companies and channels competing for our attention we end up drowning in "news".

Go with statistics. Air travel, including on every US airline, is safe. Getting in a car and going somewhere is far riskier.

chavala

Since this is posted on the United thread, I’m guessing most of us will say “YES, of course”

txp

That's a good point. It seems that these five incidents would not have been reported in the 1980s, when most of the news came from ABC/CBS/NBC and CNN. For aviation to be newsworthy back then, it had to be something major, like a crash.

Back to the current situation, it seems that we are talking about increased access to information rather than increased safety hazards, correct?

txp

I have been trying to avoid UA lately and book DL and AA because of safety concerns. I hope my concerns are unfounded. In fact, I want to be wrong because I actually love UA.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

A plane-load of people will die in car crashes and crossing the street this week in the United States. Are you going to stop riding in cars or crossing streets?

bmwe92fan

It's a combination of increased access and the "social mediazation" of the mainstream media today. Forget about facts or reporting -- just get the big "BREAKING" news headline along with a few pictures and throw it out there -- that will get many more clicks than "United plane slips off runway" -- or "United plane had hydraulic leak and returned to Sydney"....

adventures_await

I saw a new article that said United has 5,000 flights daily. The string of mishaps while unfortunate should not be a concern. I am flying them to Europe later this year on United without any concern. My brother works for United in their SFO maintenance depot. He assures me that they follow all maintenance, documentation and safety inspections to FAA requirements. The loss of the tire at SFO is a screw up and the landing gear shop will investigate and make sure this doesn't happen again. The engine fire appears to be caused by the engine ingesting some bubble wrap, which is a FOD issue not an engine maintenance issue. I haven't seen any details on the cause of the Austin taxi event. I don't have any information on the 2 other events. United has an excellent safety record so you should not be concerned flying them.

jsloan

This week? Must be an A380.

While cars have also gotten notably safer, the fatality rate for automobile travel -- in the US alone -- hasn't dropped much below 100 / day since the 1940s.

notquiteaff

Zero concerns about flying in UA. As far as I recall, the last major accident with multiple fatalities by any major US commercial airline was the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo in 2009.

halls120

My brother flew for Delta for over 30 years. His son flies for UA, at his father's recommendation. I doubt he would have made that recommendation if he had any reservations about UA.

I'm boarding a TATL flight on UA in little over a week. No hesitation or reservation at all. My biggest concern is whether the food in Polaris will ever improve.

Roger Lococco

I feel completely safe flying United. I dislike the entire experience from end to end, but no concerns about safety.

eightblack

Your feelings are perfectly valid. How you feel is how you feel and you shouldn't be belittled for it. Certainly not on here.

As uanj says perfectly, in this day and age of 24/7 real time media, the slightest things are being reported.

As a community we are essentially numb to how many people are killed daily on our roads. Imagine if the same amount of people were being killed daily via air travel?

UA operates over 4500 flights a day. And move something north of 150M people per year. Or roughly 410K per day.

Ask yourself this question, how many people lost their lives on UA yesterday?

And then remind yourself that every hour of every day, 4 people are being killed in a car. Just in North America.

ty97

I know there have been multiple issues over the past week which has caused a bit of a flurry in the news. This is understandable, to an extent, as most people probably don't realize that things like this happen throughout the year on all airlines, just not normally all in the same week.

Currently it strikes me as just that: coincidence that these events clustered around the same time. Unless this becomes a constant ongoing series of events (which I do not expect will happen) then I have no concerns.

All of that said, your question is a natural and understandable one with the barrage of news over the past week. We thankfully live in a golden age of safety for air travel, but it certainly takes ongoing focus and attention from everyone involved to ensure that it remains that way.

scotts tots

I appreciate the question and curiosity. I've dealt with similar fears over my life (though not recently).

Here are a couple ways I approach I know fear is not rational, it's an emotional issue - and how I've tried to frame it for myself:

1) The fact that these issues get reported on shows just *how safe it really is*. Hypothetical scenario - imagine the world's best baseball player. Imagine that they never swung and missed, and when they missed once it got reported on in news outlets... it would truly display how uncannily excellent the person was. And we're not even talking about a 'swing and a miss' (an accident) - we're talking about issues that were handled by the crew & and the plane itself, and everyone survived. 40 years ago a lot of these would have in fact been fatalities, but the bar is so much higher. This gives me a lot of comfort that *even when something happens* - it's an incident not an accident now.

2) There's always a chance I can die on an airplane. For me - when I started accepting the fact that there's always a chance and started to recognize what could 'improve my chances' of living post-travel per se, it really helped quell the fear of 'what if I'm on the one that has an issue.' Instead of trying to zero my chances of death, I tried to view them in relative terms to help quell the part of my brain that always assumes I'm the special one that will defy the odds and be on the wrong plane.

It could happen - much like I lock my doors at night and put rugs outside my shower door so I don't slip. I still could get broken into and I still could fall, but the safest place you can be in the world in terms of survival has been on a US-based commercial airliner every year since 2009, including UA. I have told myself on takeoff that I am safer being in that seat than in my bed multiple times - and it's true. Again - likelihood of me dying via a fall are low, but higher than on a plane.

3) I've sat next to a number of UA and WN pilots over the years and just picked their brains. I've asked a couple if they ever get antsy knowing they're not the ones in control, and the answer always goes something like "Man I know how much work I had to put into sitting up there - so I know there's not some bozo up there even if things go wrong, so I don't even think about it."

4) The Baader-Meinhoff (frequency illusion) is real to us. We hear a word (or see an issue) for the first time we've recognized it, and it appears a lot more. I tell myself this to try and show it's not just airline incidents increasing, it's truly access to information as an above poster said. Just because I've never heard a word before doesn't mean it didn't exist - and just because it popped up in the last 2 months more often doesn't mean people are now using it more, I'm just more cognizant.

FWIW - sorry if this was too long, but I know that fear well and it can be debilitating. Best of luck :-)