How much safer is flying supposed to be than driving?

I've never been a fearful flier (with literally two exceptions, on which we experienced toss-you-out-of-your-seat turbulence), but more and more when I read stories like this, I'd rather ride a unicycle blindfolded through a maze of bear traps than get on a plane.

Comments

[the sarcasticynic]

That happened to me once, only while driving. Last Thanksgiving my wife distracted me so much with her arguing that I overshot my mother-in-law's house by 150 miles.

[Jeni Hill Ertmer]

I read about that in our local newspaper -the flight, that is -not the sarcasticynic's comments -and I read someplace else too something about airlines having approved for pilots to take naps while on flights if they needed a little extra rest or something. Now, the nap thing sounds reasonable enough to me -provided that is that it is only one pilot at a time who is doing the napping. I'm thinking maybe the pilots on this flight misunderstood that directive though.