Seems to me it's just human nature to focus on the risks. You're never going to see a newspaper headline "Helicopter lands safely, everybody survives" because it isn't news. We get a false perspective on the world because that's actually exactly what we want to get. We don't want to hear that we're 99% not likely to get burgled this year, somehow we want to fear that 1% chance that we might. I've got 11 years no-claims on my motorcycle yet well-meaning friends and relatives are always trying to convince me to stop riding because it's "dangerous".
I think the trouble is we're slowly being convinced that the world has to be safe, and if it's not then it has to be somebody's fault (and they can then be sued for it.) It's our duty to be hardworking, not risk-taking tax-paying units. It's irresponsible and a burden on our society's finances for us to smoke, climb mountains, want to canoe across the channel, or fly unnecessarily. I fear the world in which all the risk and danger is removed. Sounds like some kind of '70s b-movie dystopia.
Si