Anyone seeing the pictures of the smoldering wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 on a San Francisco runway [on July 6] and hearing the terrifying passenger stories had to wonder how anyone could have survived. Yet only two passengers were killed of the 307 people aboard. (Editor’s note: A third passenger died several days later.)
We have seen a number of frightening aviation incidents over the past few years — such as Air France Flight 358 in 2008 in Toronto, British Airways Flight 38 in 2011 in London, and most recently Lion Air Flight 904 last April in Indonesia — in which every passenger survived.
It’s not a miracle that passengers walk away from accidents such as these. Aviation safety professionals, both in the industry and with the government, have worked for decades not only to mitigate the risk of an accident, but also to make those accidents which occur more survivable.
They have taken what has been learned from past accidents and worked closely with the aircraft…
