Orbit Friends

Question by Mike: How safe do people think the Airbus A320 is?
I am not a great flyer – in fact it generally terrifies me – and after 9-11 I refused to fly for a few years. I got over it by telling myself even if something were to happen like an explosion or bird strike – the statistical likelihood of which I can live with – at least planes don’t just fall apart or crash from turbulence. Now of course the Air France crash has freaked the hell out of me. What do people think of it, Airbus planes and the piton tubes? Would really like the opinion of people in the know in the industry. Thanks people.

Best answer:

Answer by Fly B
The A320 and A320 family are very safe airplanes (like all airliners).

Someone will criticize me for using Wikipedia I’m sure… but a quick look at the two planes and it looks to me that the A320 is the second best selling aircraft, just behind its competitor the B737. But, a look at the incidents, and it looks like the A320 has far fewer incidents than the 737. That might be related to there being fewer A320s, or that the 737 has been in service longer… either way it doesn’t really matter.

Sit yourself under a runway at a major airport and in 1 hour you will likely watch several A320s land. It is a popular, safe plane flying multiple flights daily on rapid, domestic routes.

You’re right. Turbulence does not cause an airplane to fall out of the sky. In a typical day, hundreds of bird strikes take place around the world. It is no big deal. Explosions in flight? There has been a few, usually everyone survives anyway. Planes are very well built, with safety features you wouldn’t even have thought of. Like, did you know that the government forces aircraft manufacturers to make cabin material out of low-flammable non-toxic materials?

The Air France crash is still under investigation. Remember to keep this in mind, never in the history of aviation has a crash occurred for just one reason. It is always always always a long chain of unfortunate events that leads to the accident. If at any time, any one of the links were to have been corrected, the accident would have been averted. In Air France’s case, if in fact the pitot tubes were part of the problem, it would be one of at least a few dozen things that went wrong in order to bring the plane down.

Conclusion: A320, very safe. Try to enjoy your flight.

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