* Pan Am had two 747 crashes in 11 years. Flight 103 & Flight 1736 (Tenerife) although the airline was not directly to blame for either crash.
* TWA 800 (along with 9/11) led to the collapse of airline.
* Valuejet 592 crashed in Florida in 1996, grounded for several months, and then merged with Airtran Airlines in 1997.
This is complete and utter garbage. There is no solid evidence to back this theory of the breach. It is still too early to tell exactly what data was leaked and how. We simply won't know until the security consultants auditing Equifax's systems publish a report (or otherwise publicize their results).
Most people aren't going to be tuned into the leak the same way that we are on HN, they've still got their special place in a government-sponsored near-monopoly, and big companies have the resources to deflect blame and hunker down to weather the storm.
Remember the Deepwater Horizon spill and how angry people were at the time? These days, a large majority probably don't remember the details or even the name of the bigco responsible.
Why does this matter to anyone but startup founders?
Suppose we have a solution to the underlying problems. It would undoubtedly be difficult and costly for the financial industry to adopt it, and a startup that implements it will not be in a position to force its adoption. About the only thing that could would be regulation - but I'm not holding my breath.