Is There Cause for Fear of Flying?

On the whole, the air-transport system can be proud of a fine safety record. The scheduled airlines of the Western world have suffered 138 fatal accidents in the past 25 years while flying 135 million aircraft hours--a rate that works out to one accident for the industry for every 978,000 hours in the air. Most planes are well maintained and skillfully operated. Yet there is room for improvement. Says C.O. Miller, president of System Safety, a Virginia consulting firm that has frequently been critical of airline practices: "Overall, I would say that the general quality of aviation in our country is very good, and in some ways excellent. But safety weaknesses in civil aviation do exist. They reflect the fallibility of individual men and women." To be sure, what is already an extraordinarily safe system can, and should, be made even safer. --By John Greenwald. Reported by Lee Griggs/Chicago and Jerry Hannifin/Washington