Technology is a beautiful thing. It enables me to do what I love for a living every day. iPhone apps are also a lovely thing. They enable all kinds of things, from an on-demand car service, to other on-demand "services." CNN had a story today about a new iPhone app which will tell you the…
Continue reading: New App Will Tell You If Your Plane Will Crash
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As a frequent flier who is terrified of flying, let me just say that there's nothing about this app that would put one's mind at ease. My fear of flying is not rational, so giving me the odds isn't worth anything.
It might have helped if they added pertinent information like chances of a car crash on the way to the airport to provide some sense of scale.
While I completely understand the app is intended to be on the fun/humorous side of informational, I find it annoying that the figures it presents have so many significant figures.
I have to imagine the app has some sort of data on crash/unsafe incidents related to each of the each of the datapoints (airline, origin, destination, aircraft) but surely just arbitrarily weighting those datapoints can't be accurate. Certainly not to the unit precision implied in numbers like 1/5,115,150 or 1/9,283,062.
Even though I'm not afraid in the least of flying, I think the precision adds to the "scare factor". Unfortunately the app would be a lot less interesting if it said "if everyone on the plane bought a lottery ticket, you'd have a better chance of someone winning than all of you dying in a burning wreck."
What a disgustingly alarmist app that will no doubt make those who are already nervous flyers even more anxious.
"You want to prove flying is safe? Then don’t call your app 'Am I Going Down?'"
Their real goal--to make money off of panicky, ignorant, and/or morbid people--wouldn't sell quite as well on camera.
The app is worthless even if it was accurate. Odds don't mean a thing if you're on the plane going down.