Aircraft murders

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stan reid said:
Graham blew up an entire airliner to kill his mother and collect her insurance and inheritance.
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John Gilbert Graham's 1956 trial is believed to be the first to be broadcast on television. On January 11 of 1957, he was executed in the gas chamber at Colorado State Penitentiary.
 
This Wednesday, May 7 (1964), is the 50th anniversary of the crash of Pacific Air Lines 773. The Fairchild F27A Friendship went down in California after Francisco Gonzales burst into the cockpit and shot both pilots and then himself. Out of control, the plane then crashed leaving all 44 onboard dead. Gonzales was deeply depressed and was suffering from financial difficulties. Before he boarded the plane in Reno, he purchased a large life insurance policy on himself with his wife named as the beneficiary.
 

Forgot about that one. I really don't understand(perhaps don't want to) why someone who's about to take his own life is willing to take others with him. Damn waste of human life.
 
One mystery still yet to be solved is TWA Flight 800. That one's a conspiracy theorist's playground. Some say it was a missile or bomb, Some say it was In-Flight Breakup and others say aliens. I've got to say that there are so many mass murders in the air it almost scares me to fly sometimes just to know what has happened to many others who came on board a plane expecting a routine flight only to find themselves plummeting to the ground or blown up in matter of seconds. To all who have lost family and friends in plane crashes you have my condolences.
 
On October 27 of 1939, while flying in Missouri, Earnest Pletch shoots and kills his flight instructor, Carl Bivens, and pushes him out of the plane. He then flew to Bloomington, Indiana where he was arrested and eventually given a life sentence. Pletch was upset about the estrangement of his wife and claimed that he killed Bivens when he wouldn't agree to fly to Mexico. This is believed to be the first fatal aircraft hijacking.
 
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I never thought about hypoxia occuring on MH370 but it seems perfectly logical. Helios Flight 522 wandered strangely off course and it was found that everyone on board was suffering from hypoxia. I think TWA Flight 800 will probably remain a mystery for years to come because of this NTSB denies request to reopen TWA Flight 800 crash investigation - Los Angeles Times Irritates me that they won't try to solve it. You'd expect they'd try to find it out so the families and friends of the victims could have closure on what happened that day.
 
I thought it was still unconcluded. I Must have read the wrong articles on Flight 800 and I've always been told it was still a mystery. Hmm... Time to research some more!
 
There are less people dying in aircraft crashes now than ever before.

The NTSB probably don't want to re-open the TWA800 investigation, because they have a 'probable cause' - the centre fuel tank, and anything they find now will be no more than a 'probable cause'. In investigations such as this, you'll likely never get a definite cause.

Besides, reopening the investigation will only give credence to the conspiracy nutters...
 
Yes, commercial aircraft is about 100 times more safe in deaths per passenger mile than traveling by automobile but cars are quite a bit safer than private aircraft and helicopter. The most dangerous mode of travel that average people use is motorcycle which is about 38 times more dangerous than automobile travel - 3800 times more dangerous than commercial aircraft.
 
Not really. There are only about 450+ GA deaths a year, depends how you slice the numbers, miles driven ~ hours in the air.

General Aviation Safety Recod-Current and Historic - AOPA

I show 196,165,666 drivers licensed drivers in the US with ~33,500 deaths per year.

There are 617,128 licensed pilots in the US with ~450 deaths per year.
 
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I've done the math on NZ.

You're more likely to have an accident in a car, but more likely to die in a GA accident here. hours or kilometres just change the numbers, not the outcome.
 
In all the years I have both driven and flown, I can safely say that I would rather fly than drive.

In the air, you share airspace with people who have to have certified skills and follow rules to a far higher degree than you will find on the road. On terra firma, you have drunks, red light runners, idiots texting, kids fooling around and the occasional person who passes out and slams into oncoming traffic at high speeds (yes, this happened to me)
 
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