During the day the only thing that was keeping those collisions from happening under 1000' was pilots seeing each other. At night the only thing keeping it from happening was luck.
The error is in allowing flightpaths to be so close to each other in distance and time.
That's not an example of why air travel is dangerous, that's an example of why air travel is safe.
No. The RPA4514 had the helicopter insight. Pilots are required to follow TCAS RA regardless of ATC instructions or if insight.
What makes you think they would have collided if TCAS hadn't alerted?
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics...
The fact that the incident you talk about was reported at all was exceptional.
Commercial airlines have different, far more strict regulations.
Granted, the question was hyperbolic, but you can address that hyperbole directly rather than just giving a canned generic response.
Air travel is orders of magnitude safer than the alternatives. According to the first result on google:
"In 2022, the fatality rate for people traveling by air was .003 deaths per 100 million miles traveled. The death rate people in passenger cars and trucks on US highways was 0.57 per 100 million miles"
Even if the current administration's cuts made planes several times dangerous, it'd still be preferable than the alternative. The same applies to the recent panic about 737 MAX.
Moreover, I’m not sure if I give into the framing of your figures. According to google, a plane ride on average goes 500 miles, while an average car trip is 11 miles. I am not sure if I’m doing the math correctly, but I’m pretty sure an average plane ride is thus less safe than an average car trip.
Sure, you can argue that a road trip is less safe than the same flight distance as a plane — and I don’t think I would even disagree with making that the standard — but I think saying flying is safer across the board would require narrowing yourself to a more subjective definition for “safer” than your comment suggests.