Dick Morris wrote in
:

Brian Thorn wrote:

On 10 Jul 2003 19:39:25 -0700, (George William
Herbert) wrote:

How do airliners do it?

They overfly populated areas all the time.

During early flight test? I don't *think* so...

But airliners have been known to kill people on the ground. No manned
spacecraft ever has. So why not ban airliners from flying over
populated areas?

They only do so once in many millions of flights.

But they fly many millions of flights, so the risks balance out.

Even a random person in the US is much more likely to be killed by airliner
debris than by space shuttle debris. A person living near an airport even
moreso. Of course, both probabilities are vanishingly small. That is small
comfort, I'm sure, to the families of those killed in Queens.

For the record, I live under the takeoff pattern at Ellington Field, and
regularly have NASA T-38s and Texas Air National Guard F-16s and F-18s
flying overhead. I consider the risk acceptable. For that matter, I would
consider the risk acceptable if every single shuttle reentry were targeted
to fly right over my house (not that that's possible...). Like Roger and
Jon, I'd be unable to sleep - not from fear, but because I'd be outside
with my camera.

--
JRF

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