I have not consistently written new posts for the past several weeks. The reason? I am going through A LOT of personal shit right now. My beloved Dad is in advanced stage heart failure. My resilient Mom, in her mid-70s, needed spinal surgery. Both are private people, so I will not discuss these brutal facts in depth and the emotional toll it continues to take. Besides, my Mom would be livid - not because I am revealing her impending surgery but because I am posting her actual age range online. How weird is my Mom about her age? When my Mom received her eligibility letter for Medicare, she called the local office to scream, “I am too young to be eligible for Medicare!”. All that said, I am spending more time flying between Atlanta and Chicago to visit my Dad.
My Dad is a hard-core airplane enthusiast. Here is a story for context. I went to Australia for a celebratory birthday trip a few years ago. I shared my travel itinerary to dive into the Great Barrier Reef, see the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and visit the Sidney Opera House. His only response was, “WHOA! I bet you will get to Australia in an Airbus A380!! I want to see pictures inside of *that* plane so I can see how it compares to the Boeing 747!!!” Seven wonders of the world be damned. He wanted to see that A380, in all its glory, crammed with 800 passengers. There I was, running down the aisles of the Airbus A380, taking so many pictures that the flight attendants were getting suspicious. Every trip I take, my Dad will ask me, “What kind of plane will you be in?” If you fly within the United States, you have a 90% chance that Boeing built the plane.
Yes, Boeing. Boeing was unquestionably the stalwart of aviation safety and quality. Today, media outlets publish timelines of all the terrifying incidents involving Boeing planes. Here is a list from January 2024 alone. YIKES!!!
January 5: A Boeing 737 MAX-9 operated by Alaska Airlines flying to Ontario, California, was forced to make an emergency landing at the Portland International Airport after a portion of its fuselage ripped off.
January 13: A Boeing 737-800 operated by Japan's All Nippon Airways was forced to cancel its takeoff on January 13 after a window in the cockpit cracked.
January 17: Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to travel on a Boeing 737 from Switzerland on January 17 but was forced to board a different plane after an issue relating to a possible oxygen leak.
January 19: Videos posted on social media on January 19 captured flames from a Boeing 747-8 in Miami, Florida. "Atlas Air Flight 95 returned safely to Miami International Airport around 10:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, Jan. 18, after the crew reported an engine failure,"
January 20: A Boeing 757 operated by Delta Airlines lost a wheel during an attempted takeoff.
I am sure there are documentaries, investigative journalists, and the FAA who can provide excruciating details about Boeing’s changes in manufacturing methods – notably since Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas. If you do not remember McDonnell Douglas, it has the dubious distinction of one of its leading planes, the DC-10 airliner, being involved in the worst crash in U.S. history. And it happened where my Dad currently lives…in Chicago.
None of this would deter me from flying in an airplane.
It would take me 13+ hours, including food and potty breaks, to drive each way between Atlanta and Chicago. That translates into 26+ hours of driving time through some pretty scary parts of the country. Anyone who has driven through Gary, Indiana, or Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green’s Georgia district will know of which I speak.
I would be willing to risk a kerfuffle on a Boeing plane for a two-hour flight versus venturing into a bathroom in rural Kentucky infested with rats. When I try to rationalize to myself that peeing with rats may be safer than flying in a giant death tube, I pull up the statistic that I have been hearing since the 1990s from the National Safety Council (NSC) stating the odds of dying in a car crash are greater than as an airplane passenger. The August 2023 report by the National Safety Council quantifies the odds of dying in a car crash as a driver are 1 in 114 vs. 1 in 654 as an airline passenger. I am sure the 2024 report will show a narrower margin between the two modes of transportation thanks to the Boeing safety incidents reported in 2024 thus far.
It would be nice if at least some Boeing airplanes could be retired after their prime. Here is a photo of the in-flight entertainment console on a Boeing 757 plane from two weeks ago!! Are you kidding me?! Is there a slot to enter your credit card? No USB charger? Where do the headphones go? It is challenging to feel safe, comfortable and reassured when flying in planes that were likely built when Bill Clinton was the U.S. President. Maybe I should rethink investing in rat poison for those rural Kentucky bathrooms.