toddbabe,
While in no way diminishing your concerns (or those flying) the difference between serviceability and risk needs to be recognised.
For the engineers working to provide the goods, an aircraft may be servicable but will carry some risk of failure (and I've commented earlier about issues of flying unserviceable aircraft).
For those flying serviceable aircraft, there remains a risk that something goes wrong. What happens when it goes wrong is important. Figuring out if something is too risky, and taking steps to reduce that risk is what the wheels will be on at the moment.
sw