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To: nommedeguerre who wrote (19569)	5/21/1998 3:42:00 AM
From: Charles Hughes	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 24154

>>>If I remember right, it is consumer choice that results in most injuries. Since most airline accidents occur when the plane is moving forward why aren't the passengers seated facing the rear of the plane? I asked about this once and the response was that passengers do not like to face towards the rear of the plane. Safety is not as important as comfort sometimes.<<< I'm afraid I have to disagree on this one. You could face all the passengers to the rear and all the passengers would still die when the plane failed. Periodically the airline industry revives this hoary old excuse, but don't be fooled. The frames of airliners are thin to non-existent. That's why they crumple up. The bodies have no airtight compartments. That's why they sink. The life preservers (your seat cushion) are a joke. Even though there have been lots of designs of airliners with features like parachutes (a few civil aviation designs have these, and NASA designs of course) for the plane, stronger airframes, better slower gliding ability so you hit the ground at a lower speed (50 mph is possible with the right wing design even without parachutes), stronger luggage compartments, airbags (forget the 5 point restraints), fuel that doesn't explode. Better de-icing systems. The thing that keeps these designs from being realized is a 5% revenue difference, mostly because you would have a slightly heavier plane and so would have to carry less cargo and a few less passengers. 30 years ago you could always ask what kind of plane a particular flight was and so there was a kind of competition. Planes with bad reputations quickly got washed out of the fleets, or fixed. Due to special pleading of the industry to the congress, they are now allowed to deny you knowledge of the plane type until you actually board. Thus there is no market at all to hold the line against a decline, let alone any efficient market. Chaz