A Lot Of Airlines Flying Ageing Aircraft

This is probably one of the reasons why I can't seem to be able to sooth my fear of flying -- that airline companies keep on using their old aircraft to transport people. If a car can break down mid-way, it's not impossible that aircraft can, in mid-air.

But unlike in road accidents, you can't go by the roadside and flag another for help in mid-air, you know that. There aren't many two ways about a plane crash -- you either die or die.

Aviation people say there are many more people who died in road accidents than in plane crashes. True. But there are also many more people who survive car crashes. What airlines can do to help aviophobic people like me to come to term with their "irrational fear of flying" is to be transparent -- service record of aircrafts must be made available to the passangers!

Financial Times online has this article, "Indonesian airliner crash highlights safety fears". Excerpt:

[...] When the Indonesian government bought 10 Boeing 737s from German carrier Lufthansa in 1994 for $90m (€72m, £49m), media reports were blunt in their assessment of what Jakarta was getting: the aircraft were universally described as either “ageing” or “surplus”.

But with the fatal crash on Monday of one of those aircraft one of two 737-200s given by the government of strongman Suharto to military-owned Mandala Airlines as part of a 1990s plan to boost Indonesia's airline industry the cynical assessments that accompanied the deal have yielded a grisly epilogue.

Indonesian officials said on Monday night that the cause of the crash remained unclear, with a spokesman for Mandala telling Reuters only that the initial assessment was that the aircraft had suffered “a take-off failure”.

The crash highlights what analysts say are growing safety concerns in Indonesia, where a rapidly expanding domestic air market in recent years has yielded a surge in both the number of new low-cost airlines and their financial problems.

Earlier this year the United Nations banned staff in East Timor from flying [...] (Source: Financial Times online)

In the meantime South African authorities are still investigating Saturday's helicopter crash at Richard Bay port.