wileydog3 makes this trilogy of points:
Every airline operates with an eye on three factors; safety, risks and economics.
If you want to be completely safe, you don't fly.
If you accept all risks, you are highly vulnerable to accidents/incidents.
If you don't acknowledge economics, you're out of business.
The trick of course is to properly manage all three, and of those layers of cheese, you must choose the one(s) which can be improved most efficiently. Unfortunately, trying to fix them all may put you out of business.