Judah wrote:
You seem to insist that flying is inherently more dangerous than other
modes of transportation, but fail to quote any sources or relevant
statistics.

What difference does it make in the big picture? Even if flying *is*
more dangerous than other modes of transportation, how does that help
the original poster?...is she going to go back and tell her husband that
someone on this newsgroup cited a source that says "flying is inherently
more dangerous than other modes of transportation" and is he just going
to say "Oh, okay, honey ... here's my pilot certificate, we'll just
shred it right now!" ???

Does anyone here make the decision on whether or not to fly based on
"more dangerous" or "less dangerous" claims or on relevant or irrelevant
*statistics*? If you *thought* your odds of surviving a year's worth of
flying were 99%, and then someone showed you statistics that said your
odds are really 80% instead, would that be enough to make you give it
up?...or would you still strive to be as skilled as you can and do as
much to assure that each flight you take is as safe as is feasibly
possible and keep flying?

Bottom line is it doesn't matter what statistics show ... if a person
has a passion for flying, if they trust that their aircraft is
mechanically sound, and if they are diligent about weather, personal
limits and other factors that go into planning each flight, it isn't
going to matter which method of transportation is statistically safer
than another. If statistics showed that taking the train is safer, are
you going to stop flying and take up train conducting instead? There's
no guarantee that every flight's going to be safe, and while OTHERS may
try and quote statistics to stop someone ELSE from flying, I don't
believe the actual numbers (more safe?/less safe?) are the deciding
factor when it boils down to the individual actually doing the flying.