Media scaremongering, or warning?

[OrlandoMagic]

In the news this morning, with the headline 'High risk' of plane fault repeat .
The headline refers to the BA Boeing 777 that crashed at Heathrow last year and also the more recent Delta Air Lines incident with the same model aircraft involved.

Story is here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7941137.stm

My question is, will this effect you in deciding who to fly with on your next trip? If you see that the flight you're about to book is onboard a 777 will you maybe look at the alternatives?

The reason I ask this is because when stories like this come out I have to try and hide them from my GF. She is a very nervous flyer and I always have to assure her that everything will be fine and the chances of something going wrong on a flight are sooooooooo small!

But if my GF see's this latest story I now I have got a lot of work to do convincing her it will be ok to book a flight onboard a Boeing 777, let alone any plane!

My personal feeling is that this is just scaremongering by the media and if I saw a really good price for a flight I would book it not caring if its on a 777 or a 747.

What are your views on this?

 

[wayneg]

My view is don't worry about it, its the safest mode of travelling, millions of flights a year, very few accidents but we have never been ones to worry about stuff like that, we went to NYC just after Sept 11th, been in a hotel in Salou, Spain just before it was bombed, nothing like that puts us off doing things.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Scaremongering in my eyes.
All forms of travel have risks.
I am a nervous flyer gotten better in the years we have flown,

 

[OrlandoMagic]

My view is don't worry about it, its the safest mode of travelling, millions of flights a year, very few accidents but we have never been ones to worry about stuff like that, we went to NYC just after Sept 11th, been in a hotel in Salou, Spain just before it was bombed, nothing like that puts us off doing things.

Yeah thats pretty much my view as well Wayne. Problem is my GF really thinks that all planes are doomed when she see's news stories like this. I have to remind her that the media normally only report on bad stuff happening and there wouldn't be enough hours in the day if they reported on all the 'normal' events happening around the world!

 

[Grumpy John]

Sorry disagree with the scaremongering issue. It was also a news item on Sky News earlier and as the reporter quite rightly pointed out at the time, if it had been a consumer item ie a car for example there would have been a recall of that particular model or an item in a supermarket that particular item would have been recalled.

Of the British carriers only BA use 777s I think. They have a very large fleet of other aircraft so why not take that fleet out of service to check the issue that has been raised.

At least then it would calm any nervousness that passengers may have. After all BA are not exactly making loads of money so anything that potentially harms there profits needs addressing

 

[originalkk]

My understanding is the BA 777 that crash landed at LHR had been flying over Northern Russia during the winter, and had experienced very very cold air for a protracted time. This resulted in icing in the fuel system. This seems to only affect Rolls Royce engined planes (also Delta). RR seem to know where the problem occurred but say it will take up to a year to design and test a replacement component (I think this is too long). BA are also apparently instructing flight crews on long cold flights to throttle the engines up and down to try to reduce the (already extemely low) risk further.

BA have about 40 777s and 50 747s in their fleet, which are the mainstays of their longhaul routes, so it wouldn't be possible to just swap out the 777s in the short term.

I certainly wouldn't think twice about flying to the US from the UK on a BA 777.

 

[Shooby doo]

As the previous poster said BA use it extensively so how many accidents or near misses have they had? We flew in one last year & had no problems,have to say that I prefer the layout in a 747 but that's only because our flight back was full & nowhere to spread out!
SD