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Comment by downandout | Hacker News Reader

He carefully cultivates the image of a man who utterly despises his own customers, but is far too miserly to allow an aircraft to crash.

That image will keep them going right up until they have a fatal crash, at which point the press, the government, and victims’ attorneys will use every word he has ever said about being cheap to crucify him and the company. Given their volume of flights, a fatal crash is statistically likely to happen at some point. I would be very careful ever making such statements if I were in such an industry.

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They've never had a major crash in almost 35 years. Other budget airlines with few customer perks like southwest have survived crashes with a less stellar safety record.

Other budget airlines with few customer perks like southwest have survived crashes with a less stellar safety record.

True, but Southwest does not have a CEO that openly flaunts their being cheap either.

They've never had a major crash in almost 35 years.

I once won 15 hands of blackjack in a row, but then I lost a hand. Even the most expensive airlines eventually have fatal incidents, and it would be statistically improbable for Ryanair to not eventually have one as well. They may have an amazing safety record and stellar maintenance program, but the nature of flight is such that it is likely to eventually happen (perhaps through no fault of their own) if they are in business long enough. Whether “cheapness” will actually be a factor in that incident or not, people will take his prior statements and run with them.

All I was saying is that making such statements in a high-risk industry is not a fantastic idea, as those words may come back to bite him.

You’re making no sense. You’re saying Ryanair has an impeccable safety record, but so does every other airline, but when Ryanair gets a crash, people will assume it’s because it’s cheap?

So your entire argument is people are dumb and they will make unwarranted associations. Brilliant

I didn’t say they have an impeccable safety record. I said that even if they did have one at the time of whatever fatal incident they have in the future, they are engaged in a business where they are statistically likely to eventually have a crash.

My argument is that it is idiotic for a CEO in such an industry to make comments about being cheap. It leaves the door open for people to place blame when an accident occurs. It’s like talking to the police if they want to interrogate you. It can’t help, but it can hurt. Why would you risk it?

Which Southwest crashes are you thinking about? They have never lost a passenger in a crash, though one person on the ground was killed in Chicago. There have been two accidental passenger deaths. One was due to engine failure, not a crash, and the other was a passenger who tried to get into the cockpit and died after being restrained.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#Accidents_a...

^^ this.

Southwest has one of the best, if not the best, safety records of all major air carriers.

The point is that Ryanair is the best.

They are smaller than Southwest on most (not all) metrics, but in the same ballpark.

Their only accident is a bird strike causing 8 minor injuries.

How can you say an airline that is 35 years old is clearly better than one that is 52 years old based on total anything?

Admittedly I thought they had more than they do because of all the hoopla about 737s. I guess the one recent incident that comes to mind is the broken fan blade incident that killed a passenger. That could easily be attributed to lack of maintenance but it blew over relatively fast. However, the heroics of the captain created a different story.

I would never dream of thinking Ryanair skimps one aircraft maintenance. I’d be concerned by their cabin crew performance given the conditions they work in though.

I think their fleet is quite new as well, and they keep it that way, for fuel efficiency.

The guy is doing a cheap airline, not an unsafe one. He’s not a madman. He’s a ruthless business guy, and he knows a crash due to poor maintenance would end his business.

He's never said his planes are unsafe.

Why would Ryanair ever have a crash? Their airplanes are usually quite new. The EU hasn’t had an accidental plane crash in ages. Have you ever flown Ryanair?

Hang on, the EU has had heaps from small (the Piper that went down over the Alps yesterday and the plane carrying Emiliano Sala come to mind) to large (Air France 447).

I meant large passenger planes. And I meant accidental crashes within the EU territory not extraterritorial. I believe the safety record is pretty good, but can’t tell you it’s perfect

Both Boeing 737 Max planes which recently crashed were also almost brand new.

I have flown Ryanair a few times, I’d rather not go than take them today though.

Why would Ryanair ever have a crash?

Because they hurl large, heavy, metal objects with people on them into the sky at hundreds of miles per hour, thousands of times per day. Historically, that activity has resulted in some small percentage of those flights not coming down safely. The math says that it is quite likely to happen over the course of enough flights.

> Given their volume of flights, a fatal crash is statistically likely to happen at some point.

Has Ryanair flown more flights than all the domestic and international commercial jet flights in Australian history? Because there has never been a crash of a commercial jet here despite several near misses.

Safety culture and training has more of a bearing than statistics.

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