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It may be true that the media oversensationalizes every aviation mishap, but in some way they are merely reacting to what the public is interested in and the definition of "news".
Here are two headlines: "Fifty people killed in airline crash" and "Another 900 Americans killed in traffic fatalities during the past week." And while the second headline is factual and should stand out because of the greater loss of life, you will never see it as a headline because it is not newsworthy. The first headline is. A bus with 50 passengers going downhill that loses its brakes, with a driver that manages to bring it safely to a stop at the bottom of the hill won't even make the local news because no one was there to record it. A plane that has a mis-alligned nose wheel and makes an emergency landing makes the news because cameras are there to catch all the action as it happens.
