Tartan Giant
3rd Dec 2000, 01:44
Air Travel and Health – House of Lord’s Select Committee Report - 15 Nov 2000
I mean no offence to any affected party whose loved one died from DVT however caused.
Westminster Scenario.
MP : “Do you think we should have a Select Committee to look into these 5,000 DEATHS /year we definitely know about due to infections picked up in our UK hospitals” ?
Science and Technology - Fifth Report (Air Transport and DVT) member : “No !….too scandalous”.
MP: “Do you think we should concentrate on the 3 maybe 4 DVT deaths this year that may have/allegedly been related to air travel ?
Science and Technology - Fifth Report (Air Travel and Health - and DVT) member : “Yes, we must think of the bigger picture.”
So did they ???
Of the many contradictions the Select Report trips up on, there are a few worth mentioning. For instance I do not understand this statement.
“1.12 In the case of pilots, we recommend that, if the authorised medical examiner (AME) finds evidence of significant ill-health not necessarily affecting a pilot's fitness certification, this should be recorded and reported both to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and to the affected person's general practitioner. (Paragraph 3.48)
How the hell does a pilot with, “..significant ill-health.. escape passing a Class One medical, as it apparently does, “not necessarily affecting a pilot's fitness certification” ? One of the perplexing items that surfaces.
The Committee goes on…..
“Turning to what we consider to be the main medical concern, Chapter 6 discusses deep vein thrombosis (DVT) together with associated issues of seating, stress and the scope for harmful interaction between aspects of the cabin environment.”
Out of the waffle, and jobs for the boys foundation laying, there is this bit,
“6.10 Pulmonary embolism is a relatively rare complication of DVT, Professor Kakkar and Dr De Lorenzo (p 181) giving an incidence of about 1 in 100 post-surgical patients who have suffered a DVT”.
So from being a relatively rare thing, getting a life threatening thrombi through air travel becomes the main medical concern ! Wonderful logic.
Yes, I know not all passengers are post-operatives, but the other contributory factors which encourage DVT are present in a huge percentage of passengers. The ‘pill’ or hormone therapy treatments for ladies are but two pointers….and as half the flying population are women, then the odds are only too obvious.
How exactly are airlines/doctors going to pin the entire blame on an airline for DVT when the life threatening condition takes weeks sometimes to manifest itself ?
“….. between the development of the initial small thrombi and such an embolism may be anything from days to weeks.”
The airline thus becomes an easy scapegoat for the “weeks” of a pre-existing condition to develop through the patients own contributory pre or post-flight actions, which are unmonitored and covert.
With so many cases arising outwith flying, how is it flying is getting it in the neck ?
“6.11 To keep this in proportion, it has been concluded from post-mortem studies that up to one half of all people with DVT and/or pulmonary embolism will show no signs or symptoms at all (pp 181 & 246), and only one in three cases of suspected DVT is subsequently confirmed (p 181).”
Even post-mortems show half have had a DVT and they did not even know about it; so half the population still alive theoretically have DVT and don’t know they have it…….nor their doctors !
If they indulge in known activities that encourage overt symptoms, then is that any negligence or fault of an airline ?
If all this nonsense about “economy class syndrome” was so common as to be “..the main medical concern..” then why was it hidden for so long by Government/s ?
“….the first strong evidence that pulmonary embolism was causally linked with spatial confinement, immobility and constrained seating conditions was published 60 years ago by the late Professor Keith Simpson”.
Consider the Professor’s findings,
“He noted a sharp increase in deaths from pulmonary embolism among people who had spent long periods in air-raid shelters, and found that such deaths were six times higher among those who had sat in hard-edged deckchairs than among those who had not.”
So before you lie out in the sun on your DECK CHAIR (or similar contraption) watch out for the health warning the Government so kindly stuck on it by law - having taken careful note of the first STRONG evidence they warned us about so openly 60 years ago and every year since (ha !).
Stress has been noted as an ingredient in premature death; I would suspect there were lots of cases of STRESS in those air-raid shelters, and above ground before getting into those shelters - the same analogy as those boarding an aircraft for perhaps a stressful 12 hours (not to mention the hard chairs in the departure lounge, or on the train, bus, car ! ).
The report thankfully acknowledges DVT is triggered from other travel experiences,
“Many of the subsequent reports cite this important paper in their linking of DVT with enforced immobility and unsuitable seating in cars, coaches, trains and, in particular, aircraft.”
They slag off aircraft again with their, “….and, in particular, aircraft”.
There have been so many fatalities littering Arrival lounges ( nearly as many thousand as those from hospital infections) of every airport in the UK that it must of be of course linked to aircraft “particularly”. What UTTER TRIPE these folk have given signature to.
FIVE THOUSAND die in the UK each year from infections picked up in hospitals, and where is the IMMEDIATE health warnings on that one ? Not even an Enquiry ? Dear…Dear….let’s slag airlines first and worry about these allegedly related few DVT deaths and forget 5000 deaths they know for sure are caused by a quick hospital visit.
From POSITIVELY identifying travel by aircraft as, “the main medical concern” we now have them on the back foot retracting the notion that DVT “may”, note the word, “may” be linked to flying - they are not even sure if they are on the right track !! Cause a fortune to be spent researching microscopic possibilities.
“RISK FACTORS
6.13 From studies on surgical patients, various factors have been recognised as contributing to a raised risk of DVT - see Box 2. As discussed in paragraph 6.17, there are also factors in the aircraft cabin environment which may be risk factors for DVT in themselves, or which may augment the risk from the predisposing factors.”
My whole point in all my ‘posts’ against the notion of “economy class syndrome” are those elements of PREDISPOSING FACTORS - and my utter disbelief and total despair that Government ignores reacting strongly and immediately, to eradicate these 5000 deaths/year to fit and well persons visiting hospitals.
If 100% of passengers are free from the following PREDISPOSING FACTORS then I want to know how they do it, where they live, what they eat, what job they hold down, and what seats they sit in to “down under” !
Predisposing factors for DVT
Generally agreed by witnesses
• Increasing age above 40 years
• Pregnancy
• Former or current malignant disease
• Blood disorders leading to increased clotting tendency
• Inherited or acquired impairment of blood clotting mechanisms
• Some types of cardiovascular disease or insufficiency
• Personal or family history of DVT
• Recent major surgery or injury, especially to lower limbs or abdomen
• Oestrogen hormone therapy, including oral contraception
• Immobilisation for a day or more
• Depletion of body fluids causing increased blood viscosity
Witnesses' views variable
• Varicose veins
• Obesity
• Current tobacco smoking
Sources: Dr Giangrande (p 234), Professor Kakkar & Dr De Lorenzo (p 181), Dr Kesteven (p 246), Professor Meade (p 174), Professor Mohler (p 251), Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (p 280), Mr Scurr (p 283)
I cannot believe a normal healthy person (or the BILLIONS that have flown) and those who will fly, can contract DVT through flying if they use their airborne time intelligently. Taxpayers money is wasted in this DVT flying investigation nonsense; money that could be spent “cleaning” hospitals of deadly infections.
The Select Committee say it themselves,
“…..only 11% of cases of post-surgical DVT had no risk factors identifiable by non-laboratory tests, and that 40% of new acute DVT cases were associated with inheritable clot-enhancing conditions.”
What a waste of public funds and of the time of experts, whilst THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS die prematurely miles away from an aircraft.
Trust this Government to get their priorities right……..all the best if you go anywhere near a hospital, “fasten your seat-belts…it’s going to be a bumpy night” !!!
The committee say,
“1.4 Although we have found no significant impact of air travel on health for the vast majority of travellers, there are substantial points that need to be addressed for a minority”.
Here is a splendid opportunity for an “start-up” airline who wish to cater for the “minority” who feel present airline arrangements are not good enough for them !
To cater for the very tall, the very fat, and the ill at large (no offence intended) who insist on travelling 12 – 18 hours (and longer) in one go, for the cheapest deal they can find, and then feel aggrieved thereafter for innumerable reasons, pressing complaints into the hands of no win/no fee lawyers seeking extortionate compensation.
You may have seen the t/v advert where a young bloke talks of the bucket of hot tar he splashed over his legs (self induced accident) and then boasts he got £20,000 off his company.
It is this sort of climate of compensation mania that grips this once resilient and proud nation which is being drip fed by an ever increasingly nanny pandering government.
Now the DVT debate, fuelled by rag bag press statements, leading to a Lord’s Select Committee on airline travel and related health. Pathetic.
Many lame and weak comment was advanced by this Select Committee’s report such as,
1.16 It is imperative that the current paucity of data on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) be remedied
The reason for this “paucity” of data is the microscopic incidences allegedly associated with long-haul flying, otherwise airport doctors would be inundated, likewise GP’s, with cases clearly connected with flying.
If this committee wanted data on the subject, they did very little looking, as there has been sporadic reports spanning decades where the subject crops up as medically academic interest.
Mind you, they have the FACT that BILLIONS have flown and not dropped down dead via DVT.
1.17 As an interim measure pending the development of more authoritative guidance, we recommend airlines, their agents and others with consumer interests to repackage the summary indicative and precautionary advice on DVT
If all these people took half as much interest in passengers as airlines do, then such “precautionary advice” would be available filling their letter boxes.
You would think this committee were lining up passengers for a bungee jump down over the Amazon, when they say, “This will enable those who have no access to other advice to make preliminary decisions about their travel and the risk of DVT”. No access to other advice – what utter nonsense !
1.18 “…..we recommend the Government to consider tackling DVT on a wider travel-related front or, indeed, as a general public health matter”.
VERY interesting that ‘they’ only ask the Government to “consider tackling” this DVT problem as a general public health matter, yet they ask all in sundry to come up with “precautionary advice” for just airline passengers; a bit of the cart before the horse mentality.
1.20 In relation to air travel alone, however, and applying the precautionary principle used in other fields where health risks are considered possible…
The “precautionary principle” – what a laugh……like the notices on car steering wheels that say, “Obey the Highway Code and you will not be involved in an accident which KILLS or injures over 250,000 people a year in the UK”.
There is a health risk getting out of bed that has not been properly looked at, “with consumer interests to repackage the summary indicative and precautionary advice”.
Health risks are considered possible if you go into hospital for an appendix operation, but do you get a document telling you of all the risks ?
SEATING
1.21 We were pleased to hear about new CAA research into people's size and the reduction in mobility after long flights…
Sharp cookies noticing people are getting fatter and drinking themselves under the seat when they go on holiday !
1.22 To facilitate passengers' choice of seating….
The same considerations that the train companies use and of course car manufacturers, not to mention cinema operators……who all used the,
“The key issues are: the minimum size of seat taking account of health considerations”.
How do you regulate a seat for “health considerations”. Backside size I can understand, but if Mrs. Thingy has a bent spine or is on the ‘pill’ what do you do to the seat ?
This committee wants blood from a stone; “….material in seat-back pockets and fold-down tables…”
What are the options ? Nothing in the pockets and no table ?
What about the colour of the carpets, just in case they are not soft enough, or the wrong colour, for the minority who are mentally affected by pattern hysteresis due to prolonged exposure to humans waiting to fly ?
And the lighting in cabins….is it not too bright or the wrong spectrum colour ? Of course there is the noise ! That can be very annoying and disturbing; can the Select Committee not “recommend” airlines do more to suppress this intrusive noise violation on minority ear drums ?
Have you ever heard such a load of TRIPE as this epic little statement….
“In addition, we see a general need to improve practices to minimise any risks for the remainder”. What an rear-posture covering statement that is.
minimise any risks Now there is a challenge that will keep money flowing for the “do gooders” !
It is not good enough that European jet airlines fatality rates have a safety record of roughly 0.5 / MILLION flights. Airlines here do their very best (as do their crews) to get passengers safely from A-B. Not a scratch for all those MILLIONS, nay BILLIONS, yet we have a bleating Select Committee wanting a pound of flesh. Spoon feed the passengers next with more BS.
They do admit to one thing which is encouraging, “Like all other human activities, air travel can never be risk free”.
I find it difficult to see how ‘they’ say, “Our concern is not that health is secondary to safety but that it has been woefully neglected” when BILLIONS fly and then walk away from the aircraft without a scratch. The ‘duty of care’ has been unmistakably proven by flying safely from A to B and back, and now we have some academics saying the airline industry has been “woefully” negligent in providing such care. Good God…..we have been so bloody bad !
Are Boeing and Airbus pushing out aircraft equipped with seats or conditioning systems that are killing us all ? I don’t think so. Are we building cleaner hospitals….are we cleaning out killer hospitals….I don’t think so.
This STUPID government allows car manufacturers to roll out cars that are capable of exceeding 70 mph by a factor of two, when a simple regulator could be fitted to limit top speed to the lawful limit - but that would reduce their income from speeding fines ! Consumer choice and the voters; don’t upset them by saving the carnage on the roads.
SPEED KILLS but do they clamp down in this area….NO…..it is the soft targets that are easy meat.
Thank you Select Committee for pointing out the horrendous failings this airline industry has heaped upon the nation for decades. They shall jump to finding solutions to the innumerable potential catastrophes they have overlooked for so many years and billions of safe passenger miles.
I’m going to walk the dog, but before I do, may I have a Select Committee appointed to access the risks please, so I can make an informed decision prior this minority exercise ?
I have a "human right" to an answer or is that being silly or being realistic; as the Committee says,
"...there are substantial points that need to be addressed for a minority" ?
Dog walkers are a minority, so we have "rights" too.......I want a Select Committee to investigate....NOW !
I mean no offence to any affected party whose loved one died from DVT however caused.
Westminster Scenario.
MP : “Do you think we should have a Select Committee to look into these 5,000 DEATHS /year we definitely know about due to infections picked up in our UK hospitals” ?
Science and Technology - Fifth Report (Air Transport and DVT) member : “No !….too scandalous”.
MP: “Do you think we should concentrate on the 3 maybe 4 DVT deaths this year that may have/allegedly been related to air travel ?
Science and Technology - Fifth Report (Air Travel and Health - and DVT) member : “Yes, we must think of the bigger picture.”
So did they ???
Of the many contradictions the Select Report trips up on, there are a few worth mentioning. For instance I do not understand this statement.
“1.12 In the case of pilots, we recommend that, if the authorised medical examiner (AME) finds evidence of significant ill-health not necessarily affecting a pilot's fitness certification, this should be recorded and reported both to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and to the affected person's general practitioner. (Paragraph 3.48)
How the hell does a pilot with, “..significant ill-health.. escape passing a Class One medical, as it apparently does, “not necessarily affecting a pilot's fitness certification” ? One of the perplexing items that surfaces.
The Committee goes on…..
“Turning to what we consider to be the main medical concern, Chapter 6 discusses deep vein thrombosis (DVT) together with associated issues of seating, stress and the scope for harmful interaction between aspects of the cabin environment.”
Out of the waffle, and jobs for the boys foundation laying, there is this bit,
“6.10 Pulmonary embolism is a relatively rare complication of DVT, Professor Kakkar and Dr De Lorenzo (p 181) giving an incidence of about 1 in 100 post-surgical patients who have suffered a DVT”.
So from being a relatively rare thing, getting a life threatening thrombi through air travel becomes the main medical concern ! Wonderful logic.
Yes, I know not all passengers are post-operatives, but the other contributory factors which encourage DVT are present in a huge percentage of passengers. The ‘pill’ or hormone therapy treatments for ladies are but two pointers….and as half the flying population are women, then the odds are only too obvious.
How exactly are airlines/doctors going to pin the entire blame on an airline for DVT when the life threatening condition takes weeks sometimes to manifest itself ?
“….. between the development of the initial small thrombi and such an embolism may be anything from days to weeks.”
The airline thus becomes an easy scapegoat for the “weeks” of a pre-existing condition to develop through the patients own contributory pre or post-flight actions, which are unmonitored and covert.
With so many cases arising outwith flying, how is it flying is getting it in the neck ?
“6.11 To keep this in proportion, it has been concluded from post-mortem studies that up to one half of all people with DVT and/or pulmonary embolism will show no signs or symptoms at all (pp 181 & 246), and only one in three cases of suspected DVT is subsequently confirmed (p 181).”
Even post-mortems show half have had a DVT and they did not even know about it; so half the population still alive theoretically have DVT and don’t know they have it…….nor their doctors !
If they indulge in known activities that encourage overt symptoms, then is that any negligence or fault of an airline ?
If all this nonsense about “economy class syndrome” was so common as to be “..the main medical concern..” then why was it hidden for so long by Government/s ?
“….the first strong evidence that pulmonary embolism was causally linked with spatial confinement, immobility and constrained seating conditions was published 60 years ago by the late Professor Keith Simpson”.
Consider the Professor’s findings,
“He noted a sharp increase in deaths from pulmonary embolism among people who had spent long periods in air-raid shelters, and found that such deaths were six times higher among those who had sat in hard-edged deckchairs than among those who had not.”
So before you lie out in the sun on your DECK CHAIR (or similar contraption) watch out for the health warning the Government so kindly stuck on it by law - having taken careful note of the first STRONG evidence they warned us about so openly 60 years ago and every year since (ha !).
Stress has been noted as an ingredient in premature death; I would suspect there were lots of cases of STRESS in those air-raid shelters, and above ground before getting into those shelters - the same analogy as those boarding an aircraft for perhaps a stressful 12 hours (not to mention the hard chairs in the departure lounge, or on the train, bus, car ! ).
The report thankfully acknowledges DVT is triggered from other travel experiences,
“Many of the subsequent reports cite this important paper in their linking of DVT with enforced immobility and unsuitable seating in cars, coaches, trains and, in particular, aircraft.”
They slag off aircraft again with their, “….and, in particular, aircraft”.
There have been so many fatalities littering Arrival lounges ( nearly as many thousand as those from hospital infections) of every airport in the UK that it must of be of course linked to aircraft “particularly”. What UTTER TRIPE these folk have given signature to.
FIVE THOUSAND die in the UK each year from infections picked up in hospitals, and where is the IMMEDIATE health warnings on that one ? Not even an Enquiry ? Dear…Dear….let’s slag airlines first and worry about these allegedly related few DVT deaths and forget 5000 deaths they know for sure are caused by a quick hospital visit.
From POSITIVELY identifying travel by aircraft as, “the main medical concern” we now have them on the back foot retracting the notion that DVT “may”, note the word, “may” be linked to flying - they are not even sure if they are on the right track !! Cause a fortune to be spent researching microscopic possibilities.
“RISK FACTORS
6.13 From studies on surgical patients, various factors have been recognised as contributing to a raised risk of DVT - see Box 2. As discussed in paragraph 6.17, there are also factors in the aircraft cabin environment which may be risk factors for DVT in themselves, or which may augment the risk from the predisposing factors.”
My whole point in all my ‘posts’ against the notion of “economy class syndrome” are those elements of PREDISPOSING FACTORS - and my utter disbelief and total despair that Government ignores reacting strongly and immediately, to eradicate these 5000 deaths/year to fit and well persons visiting hospitals.
If 100% of passengers are free from the following PREDISPOSING FACTORS then I want to know how they do it, where they live, what they eat, what job they hold down, and what seats they sit in to “down under” !
Predisposing factors for DVT
Generally agreed by witnesses
• Increasing age above 40 years
• Pregnancy
• Former or current malignant disease
• Blood disorders leading to increased clotting tendency
• Inherited or acquired impairment of blood clotting mechanisms
• Some types of cardiovascular disease or insufficiency
• Personal or family history of DVT
• Recent major surgery or injury, especially to lower limbs or abdomen
• Oestrogen hormone therapy, including oral contraception
• Immobilisation for a day or more
• Depletion of body fluids causing increased blood viscosity
Witnesses' views variable
• Varicose veins
• Obesity
• Current tobacco smoking
Sources: Dr Giangrande (p 234), Professor Kakkar & Dr De Lorenzo (p 181), Dr Kesteven (p 246), Professor Meade (p 174), Professor Mohler (p 251), Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (p 280), Mr Scurr (p 283)
I cannot believe a normal healthy person (or the BILLIONS that have flown) and those who will fly, can contract DVT through flying if they use their airborne time intelligently. Taxpayers money is wasted in this DVT flying investigation nonsense; money that could be spent “cleaning” hospitals of deadly infections.
The Select Committee say it themselves,
“…..only 11% of cases of post-surgical DVT had no risk factors identifiable by non-laboratory tests, and that 40% of new acute DVT cases were associated with inheritable clot-enhancing conditions.”
What a waste of public funds and of the time of experts, whilst THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS die prematurely miles away from an aircraft.
Trust this Government to get their priorities right……..all the best if you go anywhere near a hospital, “fasten your seat-belts…it’s going to be a bumpy night” !!!
The committee say,
“1.4 Although we have found no significant impact of air travel on health for the vast majority of travellers, there are substantial points that need to be addressed for a minority”.
Here is a splendid opportunity for an “start-up” airline who wish to cater for the “minority” who feel present airline arrangements are not good enough for them !
To cater for the very tall, the very fat, and the ill at large (no offence intended) who insist on travelling 12 – 18 hours (and longer) in one go, for the cheapest deal they can find, and then feel aggrieved thereafter for innumerable reasons, pressing complaints into the hands of no win/no fee lawyers seeking extortionate compensation.
You may have seen the t/v advert where a young bloke talks of the bucket of hot tar he splashed over his legs (self induced accident) and then boasts he got £20,000 off his company.
It is this sort of climate of compensation mania that grips this once resilient and proud nation which is being drip fed by an ever increasingly nanny pandering government.
Now the DVT debate, fuelled by rag bag press statements, leading to a Lord’s Select Committee on airline travel and related health. Pathetic.
Many lame and weak comment was advanced by this Select Committee’s report such as,
1.16 It is imperative that the current paucity of data on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) be remedied
The reason for this “paucity” of data is the microscopic incidences allegedly associated with long-haul flying, otherwise airport doctors would be inundated, likewise GP’s, with cases clearly connected with flying.
If this committee wanted data on the subject, they did very little looking, as there has been sporadic reports spanning decades where the subject crops up as medically academic interest.
Mind you, they have the FACT that BILLIONS have flown and not dropped down dead via DVT.
1.17 As an interim measure pending the development of more authoritative guidance, we recommend airlines, their agents and others with consumer interests to repackage the summary indicative and precautionary advice on DVT
If all these people took half as much interest in passengers as airlines do, then such “precautionary advice” would be available filling their letter boxes.
You would think this committee were lining up passengers for a bungee jump down over the Amazon, when they say, “This will enable those who have no access to other advice to make preliminary decisions about their travel and the risk of DVT”. No access to other advice – what utter nonsense !
1.18 “…..we recommend the Government to consider tackling DVT on a wider travel-related front or, indeed, as a general public health matter”.
VERY interesting that ‘they’ only ask the Government to “consider tackling” this DVT problem as a general public health matter, yet they ask all in sundry to come up with “precautionary advice” for just airline passengers; a bit of the cart before the horse mentality.
1.20 In relation to air travel alone, however, and applying the precautionary principle used in other fields where health risks are considered possible…
The “precautionary principle” – what a laugh……like the notices on car steering wheels that say, “Obey the Highway Code and you will not be involved in an accident which KILLS or injures over 250,000 people a year in the UK”.
There is a health risk getting out of bed that has not been properly looked at, “with consumer interests to repackage the summary indicative and precautionary advice”.
Health risks are considered possible if you go into hospital for an appendix operation, but do you get a document telling you of all the risks ?
SEATING
1.21 We were pleased to hear about new CAA research into people's size and the reduction in mobility after long flights…
Sharp cookies noticing people are getting fatter and drinking themselves under the seat when they go on holiday !
1.22 To facilitate passengers' choice of seating….
The same considerations that the train companies use and of course car manufacturers, not to mention cinema operators……who all used the,
“The key issues are: the minimum size of seat taking account of health considerations”.
How do you regulate a seat for “health considerations”. Backside size I can understand, but if Mrs. Thingy has a bent spine or is on the ‘pill’ what do you do to the seat ?
This committee wants blood from a stone; “….material in seat-back pockets and fold-down tables…”
What are the options ? Nothing in the pockets and no table ?
What about the colour of the carpets, just in case they are not soft enough, or the wrong colour, for the minority who are mentally affected by pattern hysteresis due to prolonged exposure to humans waiting to fly ?
And the lighting in cabins….is it not too bright or the wrong spectrum colour ? Of course there is the noise ! That can be very annoying and disturbing; can the Select Committee not “recommend” airlines do more to suppress this intrusive noise violation on minority ear drums ?
Have you ever heard such a load of TRIPE as this epic little statement….
“In addition, we see a general need to improve practices to minimise any risks for the remainder”. What an rear-posture covering statement that is.
minimise any risks Now there is a challenge that will keep money flowing for the “do gooders” !
It is not good enough that European jet airlines fatality rates have a safety record of roughly 0.5 / MILLION flights. Airlines here do their very best (as do their crews) to get passengers safely from A-B. Not a scratch for all those MILLIONS, nay BILLIONS, yet we have a bleating Select Committee wanting a pound of flesh. Spoon feed the passengers next with more BS.
They do admit to one thing which is encouraging, “Like all other human activities, air travel can never be risk free”.
I find it difficult to see how ‘they’ say, “Our concern is not that health is secondary to safety but that it has been woefully neglected” when BILLIONS fly and then walk away from the aircraft without a scratch. The ‘duty of care’ has been unmistakably proven by flying safely from A to B and back, and now we have some academics saying the airline industry has been “woefully” negligent in providing such care. Good God…..we have been so bloody bad !
Are Boeing and Airbus pushing out aircraft equipped with seats or conditioning systems that are killing us all ? I don’t think so. Are we building cleaner hospitals….are we cleaning out killer hospitals….I don’t think so.
This STUPID government allows car manufacturers to roll out cars that are capable of exceeding 70 mph by a factor of two, when a simple regulator could be fitted to limit top speed to the lawful limit - but that would reduce their income from speeding fines ! Consumer choice and the voters; don’t upset them by saving the carnage on the roads.
SPEED KILLS but do they clamp down in this area….NO…..it is the soft targets that are easy meat.
Thank you Select Committee for pointing out the horrendous failings this airline industry has heaped upon the nation for decades. They shall jump to finding solutions to the innumerable potential catastrophes they have overlooked for so many years and billions of safe passenger miles.
I’m going to walk the dog, but before I do, may I have a Select Committee appointed to access the risks please, so I can make an informed decision prior this minority exercise ?
I have a "human right" to an answer or is that being silly or being realistic; as the Committee says,
"...there are substantial points that need to be addressed for a minority" ?
Dog walkers are a minority, so we have "rights" too.......I want a Select Committee to investigate....NOW !