Washington Post: Why Does Flying Seem So Terrible Right Now?

An article in the Washington Post echoes what many Americans have been thinking about the state of air travel these days. Were there always so many near-misses on the tarmac? Were there always such hostile passengers attacking airline crews? WaPo tries to break it down :

For months now, headlines have delivered a relentless parade of tough news for nervous fliers: a runway near miss between two planes here, a midflight battery fire there, severe turbulence that projects passengers out of their seats, a 1,400-foot plunge toward the Pacific Ocean, yet another attack on a flight attendant. And then close call after close call on the tarmac.

As observers respond with bafflement — "Another one? Didn't this just happen?" — the Federal Aviation Administration is taking note. Air travel experts convened Wednesday in Northern Virginia to "examine and address recent safety concerns" as part of a broader review . Several members of the panel pointed to turnover of the industry's labor force as a potential safety risk.

. . .

So far this year, the National Transportation Safety Board has opened investigations into six of the close-call incidents, in New York City ; Honolulu ; Austin ; Sarasota , Fla.; Burbank , Calif.; and Boston . The agency has issued preliminary reports in three of those cases; it did not issue any reports for incursions that occurred in 2022 and only issued one involving commercial aviation in 2021.

Read the rest of the story here .