[flashback2199]

The only reason nobody was injured this time was nobody was sitting in the seats next to the door plug that blew off. The seat was destroyed.

[stouset]

I don’t think we can even remotely say that.

From all photo evidence I’ve seen, some cushions were sucked off the seat. These cushions are designed to be removed. If a passenger was seated and wearing their seat belt, I have every faith that they would have been fine. Uncomfortable as hell but ultimately fine. I’ll bet money the NTSB report will say as much.

And the point stands that the only reason this story is noteworthy is because of airlines’ spotless safety record over the past two decades. Incidents like this are exceedingly rare.

[flashback2199]

It is trivial to see how someone sitting there not seat belted could have perished. You do understand that long stretches of flight allow you to be unseatbelted right?

[StreetChief]

A child in the middle row had his shirt sucked off his body. They were only at 16,000ft, maybe half the cruising altitude? I forget if it's 35,000 or 50,000 usually.

[JumpCrisscross]

> only reason nobody was injured this time was nobody was sitting in the seats next to the door plug

This was a serious fuck-up. But it remains that there was at risk no more than one, maybe two, fatalities. That isn’t enough to justify the claim that “safety is getting worse.”

[StreetChief]

"Only two people would have died, so it's really not that bad," is wild. What if it were you sitting at that seat and you died? Still not that bad an outcome?

[flashback2199]

In a brand new plane? Yes it is.

[BizarreByte]

You're missing his point entirely. People are trying to make flying out as getting more dangerous, but that's factually incorrect.