Kerry, we need to respond to Senator Specter's decision to join President Obama's efforts to change American into a European Welfare State.

Certainly, because obviously there is no worse fate for a country than to turn into a "European Welfare State".

prettyproofer wrote:

I'd love to hear Patrick's take on Airbus models.

Airbuses are among the safest planes ever made. After 16 years of commercial service, this incident was the first concerning the A330 model involving passenger deaths.

Accidents will happen to all types of aircraft, but as Patrick keeps telling us, properly operated modern aircraft are all remarkably safe.

The article at http://airtravel.about.com/od/safetysecurity/qt/safestairplane.htm tells us:

The Safest Airplanes in the World - World's Safest Airplanes

By Arlene Fleming, About.com

What makes one airplane safer than another? Are certain airplanes better than others? For those who travel, knowing what types of aircraft are the safest to fly on may be a factor in choosing your flights.

Beyond the structure of an airplane, certainly maintenance of a plane is a huge factor regarding safety. An airline's safety record also comes into play, as an airline may have a similar fleet with other airlines, but a very different safety record from each other. And there are the uncontrollable factors - weather, bird strikes, or ground debris to name a few.

Declaring one type of aircraft the safest in the world is not a simple task. If all airlines had exactly the same maintenance standards, and flew in the same conditions, it would perhaps be easier to pinpoint. Looking at statistics of how many incidents and crashes a type of airplane has incurred is one way to assess safety.

Airsafe maintains a list of Fatal Event Rates for Selected Airliner Models. According to their statistics the 5 safest types of airplanes are: Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Boeing 777, Boeing 717, and Boeing 737 (600-900 series). No turboprops are included in the list.

prettyproofer continued:

Also, how can the French government be involved in the investigation of the crash, since it owns a 20 percent share in Air France?

How can the US justice department investigate US politicians, since they're all part of the same government?

A government consists of different entities, not all dependent on one another. It's quite a slur to say that France's accident investigation organisation can't be trusted to impartially investigate French airlines, state-owned or not.

And as iCowboy remarked:

Because the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de l'Aviation Civile will not be investigating in isolation. Other European agencies will almost certainly supply staff and facilities and Airbus' other partners will want to know more. Also the NTSB will probably be brought in for expertise and because the plane used General Electric engines.

A good article, some interesting letters, plus a couple of creepy, sad little men broadcasting the squirming in their brains. I second the suggestion for an "ignore user" feature for letters.

Saying "the browser is dead", when the browser so very evidently is not dead, is so stupid that it made me lose interest in the article almost before it began. The same thing with all those "X is dead" articles. Too much hyperbole in tech articles KILLS PEOPLE!!!!