Flying Is Safe & This Is Why I Will Fly Every Airline In The World

Intro

I recently had a video go viral of a walkthrough of the brand-new American Airlines 78P across all 3 cabins. While people were praising the cabins, a lot of people came up with this complaint frequently that they will “never fly Boeing”. On the one hand, I understand that most people who say this aren’t frequent flyers and solely rely on the news. However, I have had many frequent flyers claiming that “they will never fly a MAX” or “never fly a carrier in Africa”. 

Let’s put the brainwashing propaganda aside and talk about the reality of this.

Propaganda About Sanctioned Countries

When people hear “Libyan Wings” or “Kam Air,” they immediately deem these airlines to be “unsafe” (and the countries, which is a different story). However, just like in the rest of the world, the same checks still apply pre-flight. The flight deck is well-trained, and in the likes of Kam Air, when I flew their A340-300, the pilot in command was, in fact, Australian. 

The flag carrier of Afghanistan is a lot safer than you think...

Okay, your next argument will probably be “sanctions”, right? Well, even if a country is sanctioned, most of these do not actually apply to aircraft parts. As an example, in Libya, there are many sanctions, but the local carriers are able to acquire the parts. In the case of Russia, planes will often be ferried to different countries if they need parts, or they will pull parts from scrapped aircraft. 

So, when you read in the media about “flying the most unsafe airline in the world”, perhaps you should do some research before making that claim. You should see the behind-the-scenes footage of the training that the flight deck has to go through in these areas. With so much competition, I’d argue that pilots want it more than in many first-world countries. 

The same applies to countries. Not all, I wouldn't recommend visiting Darfur, but Libya is a great example. Tripoli is a lovely place, but there are places in the East I would avoid.

Lastly, to put this into perspective. Would you trust a carrier where pilots don’t drink and their last crash was in 2005, or a carrier that had a crash in 2024 and their pilots frequently have been caught for being over the legal limit? Funny that Kam Air is the former, and Japan Airlines is the latter. It’s not all black and white.

What About Airplanes? 

Ever since the Air India 787 crash and the MAX crashes, a lot of people have begun complaining about “I am not flying Boeing”. In all honesty, this is pure brainwashing from the media. Ever since the midair collision of the Embraer at DCA, the media has begun promoting every flight that goes down. 

In the case of the MAX, there was a significant issue, but this has since been fixed, and the planes are completely fine. Now I am going to show you a chart about the number of accidents for Boeing versus Airbus in the US… Yes, Boeing is higher…

Total number of accidents in the USA

But now I am going to show you another chart, which is the total amount of aircraft in the US for both Boeing and Airbus. You can clearly see that one Boeing operates 4x the number of flights. 

Total number of planes in the United States

This is basic math: the more you drive, the more you have the opportunity of getting into an accident. The same applies to flying… 

Why I Will Fly Every Airplane & Airline

Perhaps I trust the fate of the universe too much, but there is not an airplane or airline I won’t fly. Why? Pretty simple: 

Take away the human aspect and think business-wise (which is how a consumer-based society (the US) thinks). If an aircraft goes down, not only is it bad publicity for the airline, but they have to pay out a hefty amount of money. No airline wants that, period. 

And in the case of more rural countries, such as Somalia, Yemen, Syria, etc, this could potentially mean an airline going out of business. So, yes, proper checks might cost more money, but a plane going down will cost them even more. 

I flew Yemenia the day after another plane was bombed in the North. I know that Yemenia wouldn't operate this flight, if they didn't deem it to be safe...

When I sit on board a Russian-made Sukhoi, I feel safe knowing that the plane will land. When I sit on board a flight to Juba, I feel safe knowing that the plane will land. When I sit in the cockpit of a Beechcraft landing in rural Tanzania, having to perform a go-around due to Zebras on the runway, I feel safe knowing the plane will land. Not because airlines truly care about us, packing us in like sardines, but because it would ruin an airline financially. 

Final Thoughts

We need to get away from this whole mindset of, “if it’s Boeing, I ain’t going”. No matter the plane, a Tupolev or Airbus A350, you have a greater chance of passing away on the way to the airport than on the plane. No matter where you are in the world, Somalia, Afghanistan, England, America, etc, there are safety measures, and a lot of them you don’t see as a consumer. So, don’t judge a book by its cover, or an airline by a country's reputation. Stuff happens, I almost died in a plane crash in Sydney if it wasn’t for my wanting another dessert. That airline has a scot-free safety record, but the day I flew happened to be that day… 

With that being said, I’d definitely book Buddha Air over Yeti Airlines in Nepal: that’s about it.