Tourist, I think you do perfer safe, operable aircraft. What seems to be the point in question is how many places to the right of the decimal must be shown for reliability to render an aircraft safe/airworthy.
The Sea King collision reminds me of a similar collision off of the coast of California, VP-50, two P-3C's, back on March 21, 1991. That wasn't an airworthiness issue, it was two aircraft being to close to each other at the same altitude. Bad vis, of course. Won't comment further, as this seems to be a pet peeve for some folks.