While technically I am not on my holiday yet, due to my father being sick, I have had to jet down to Melbourne for a few days before I head off to Morocco. Despite being warned about writing in the public domain, I thought I would give it a go again to see if I could be responsible.
Travelling to Melbourne is usally uneventful. I catch the train to the airport, usually a little early so I can get a pint or two into me before getting on the plane, where a few tinnies usually follow. Tonight was the same, the plane was on time, denying me the opportunity to get really flogged. However, it was surrieal, both in the lounge and on the plane, the news was all about Air France flight 447. Shocking images, a 3d image of a plane going through turbulence, a plane getting struck by lightening, montages of other Airbus A330′s. Once apon a time is was considered verboten to talk about plane crashes in an airport or while actually flying. Now it is broadcast directly to your own personal video screen in your seat.
Rationally, it doesn’t bother me. Flying is still by far the safest form of transport. Planes don’t just fall out of the sky. It is usually a number of cascading failures that cause a fatal crash like this. Hell, even Emirates managed to undercalculate the weight of a A340 (same airline and model as I am flying with on Sunday) by 100 tons, resulting in a very slow take off, running off the end of the runway taking out the approach lighting and ILS antenna with them and still managed to bring the plane down safely.
My heart goes out to the relatives and friends of the victims of AF447. I wish I could say this would be the last time that something like this happens. My gut feeling is that it wont be the case. Airlines are burning money, getting lazy, we could see air travel become dangerous again, like it was in the first half of the 20th century. The world may just get bigger again.