Piloting is the second most dangerous occupation

On Aug 13, 1:05 pm, wrote:
KAE wrote:
On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:27:02 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:
According to numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and CNN, being
a pilot is the second most dangerous occupation in the country (being a
fisherman is in first place).
Apparently "Flyers" moved up from third to second place since last
years CNN article.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/16/pf/2...jobs/index.htm
So CNN, which is it? Are we in second place or third place. Please
make up your mind.

The BLS numbers are updated every year about this time.

The CNN article is just the usual breathless media hype with no
analysis of the data and an eye catching conclusion.

By far the "most dangerous" occupation by industry is construction,
but if you break it down to specific occupations such as brick layer,
electrician, etc. you find the specific rates aren't that high.

It is the same for aviation.

When you lump all commercial pilots together, the rate is high.

The BLS just breaks pilots down to two sub-groups; airline pilots,
which has a low rate, and all other commercial pilots, which has
a rate about three times higher.

Of course, all other commercial pilots includes crop dusters, Alaska
bush pilots, aerial fire fighters and other such high risk stuff
as well as the commuter stuff, so one would expect the rate to be
higher.

You also have to keep in mind that the total number of work-related
fatalities for the year was 5,702, which is everyone not in the
military, while the number of traffic deaths was 42,642.

So, on the average, you are about 7.5 times more likely go get
killed driving to and from the airport as you are flying.

And, if you concider there are about 300,000,000 people in the US,
your chance of getting killed in traffic is about 1 in 7000.

When you get down to the detail, life is actually pretty safe no
matter what you do for a living, at least as a civilian.

There's one other thing that the whole thing glosses over; that is the
definition of "dangerous". Fishermen and pilots may have a higher
incidence of fatality when becoming involved in an "accident," but
that in itself is only a (IMO) partial component of the measurement of
"danger" of an occupation. Other professions are less prone to
fatatlity either by proximity to medical facilities (such as in the
case of deep sea fishermen - being so far out from shore) or by the
less severe nature of an accident (sudden deceleration syndrome in the
case of pilots). Highway construction workers, police officers, and
firefighters, to me, are in much more "dangerous" professions than
pilots, mainly due to the risk exposure inherent to the professions.
In other words, to me, the only thing these statistics really help to
indicate is degree of survivability when involved in an injury
generating situation. (Caveat: I don't have any OSHA data on hand
which includes work related injuries; and even then, I believe that it
would be "lost work time" type data, including "taking the day off
because I sprained my foot stepping on the gas pedal of the hi-lo").