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NBC's airlines decision, assigned to Tom Costello, was more serious than CBS'. He told us about the current "golden age of safety." Fatalities from accidents involving domestic flights have fallen by 65% since 1996 compared with the previous decade, this despite the fact that "the skies are more crowded, more planes, more passengers." Costello ticked off a list of improvements--improved planes, more training for controlers, higher-tech warning devices, better flight simulators for pilots--but he did not include the primary reason why the death rate looks so low. It only counted accidents. The major cause of death from domestic flights in the past decade has not been accidents but terrorism.
Accordingly, a bizarre death at Phoenix Airport inspired CBS' Kelly Wallace to examine the impact of increased counterterrorist screening at airport terminals. The dead woman, Carol Anne Gotbaum, was "the daughter-in-law of a top New York City official." Wallace reported that she may have become irate when tight security made her miss her flight; she was arrested and handcuffed; and found dead in a holding cell. Wallace noted that the Transportation Security Administration now trains screeners to be on the lookout for "signs of stress, fear and deception" in passengers and that Gotbaum was en route to "alcohol rehab in Tucson."
Wallace's story was not CBS' lead however. That was about the "record number of bags getting lost." Nancy Cordes explained the combination of factors that lead to mishandled luggage: after liquid carry-ons were banned more passengers used check-in; smaller regional jets have less room for carry-ons; labor force downsizing has resulted in fewer baggage handlers. Still, CBS' decision to make luggage its lead was needlessly alarmist--especially when Cordes used the following blind quote from "one travel expert." He recommends that passengers pack "assuming that their bags will get to their destination about 24 hours after they do." Hearing such a recommendation one would conclude that there is something like a 50/50 chance of bags going missing. Hardly: even in the summer's worst month just eight checked bags out of every 1,000 were lost or delayed or damaged or stolen. That is a 99.2% chance of success.
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