REFLECTOR: OT Plane hits an apartment building in NYC

[Dave Black]

> Definitely not good PR for the GA community.  ...I just
> hope people will understand how non-threatening a small plane really is.

Unfortunately, the public at large does not have any perspective on 
aviation. And most in the Media are just as ill-informed as the public. 
So they express their ill-informed opinions in the media.

Didn't we have an auto accident the other day where a little old lady 
hit the accelerator instead of the brake and plowed into a store? This 
time no one was hurt, but often times in similar accidents people have 
been killed. I see this type of accident as very similar to a small 
plane hitting a building, yet the  News Media absolutely responds to 
them quite differently.

They give a ho-hum approach to the auto accident, yet if anything 
involves an airplane they'll chase after it for weeks. Often it'll lead 
to stories about how unsafe our skies are, and how any pilot could fly a 
small plane into anything (so NO ONE is safe). This is usually followed 
by calls to get those Dangerous Things out of Our skies.

Dave Black