Overheard on the flight deck of the world's safest aircraft.....
"- #12 just failed..."
"Which side?"
There's no such thing as perfectly safe, and never will be. Perfection will only ever be a goal; if you could achieve it, it wouldn't be worth striving towards. Every design ever has had its' flaws; some serious, some just annoying. The 727 raised some mighty concerns in its' early days, and over the mists of time and millions of successful flights, became one of the world's finest. The latest AD is only addressing a high failure rate, so we should applaud those who are taking a proactive stance - there was a time when only an accident would bring about some action.
And before you ask; no, we don't even have any 737's!!