Flight carrying Ron Paul, other Reps. makes emergency landingYou see, I'm always a little jumpy when something weird happens to a politician's airplane. I'll let wikipedia explain:
A flight with members of Texas' U.S. Congressional delegation aboard, including former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, "took a major nosedive" and was forced to make an emergency landing on Tuesday afternoon, according to a Houston TV station.
KHOU reports that a Continental Airlines flight carrying seven U.S. lawmakers suddenly lost cabin pressure on its way from Houston to Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport.
The flight recovered, was diverted and landed safely in New Orleans, according to one lawmaker's spokesperson.
Aboard the flight among 117 other people with Rep. Paul were Reps. John Carter (R), Henry Cuellar (D), Nick Lampson (D), Solomon Ortiz (D), Ted Poe (R), and Ciro Rodriguez (D), all representing Texas in the U.S. House.
Wellstone's death during a U.S. Senate race was the fifth in recent decades. Governor Mel Carnahan of Missouri was killed in a plane crash in 2000, three weeks before his U.S. Senate election. Representative Jerry Litton, also of Missouri, died in a plane crash in 1976 on the day he was renominated by his party. Richard "Dick" Obenshain of Virginia died in a plane crash in 1978 shortly after receiving the Republican nomination. Additionally, Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz and six other people were killed on April 4, 1991, when a Bell 412 State Police helicopter collided with the Senator's Piper Aerostar plane over Merion Elementary School in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. All aboard the two aircraft and two children playing outside the school were killed. The following day, (April 5, 1991), former U.S. Senator from Texas John Tower, also a chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and of the Iran-Contra investigation, died in a commercial plane crash in Brunswick, Georgia. Also, House Majority Leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana and Representative Nick Begich of Alaska died three weeks before election day in 1972 when their plane disappeared in Alaska.It seems to me like it happens to a disproportionately large percentage of politicians. No doubt, a major factor in that concerns how often politicians fly (especially in election years). Sure, problems with Ron Paul's plane probably mean nothing - but his status as the only voice of dissent within the Republican Party (since Barr is now Libertarian) makes me wonder. Probably nothing. I'm sure I'm just being paranoid.
Just the same, Hollywood actors and actresses exist in numbers comparable to national-level politicians, and fly in planes quite frequently. Yet I can't think of nearly as many who have died in plane crashes. (Aaliyah was primarily a musician, though she died while filming a movie. Audie Murphy was a soldier, WWII hero, and movie star. And that's all I could name off the top of my head - and I even had to go look up how to spell one of them.) I wonder if that's a fair analogy / comparison?
Dammit, now I'm gonna have to go look up how many famous hollywood actors have died in plane crashes, and compare that to national-level politicians who have died in plane crashes, and compare that to the ratio of how many people fall into those two categories but have never been in a plane crash. Why am I making so much damn work for myself?
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For the record, I don't think famous actors and actresses fly all that often, really. ...Which is to say, I know nothing about holywood-types, so I wouldn't assume they do. I imagine instead that they are either on-site and working hard, or being lazy at home. But that's all speculation.
I think a better sample set would be CEOs of large companies.
...Then again, I suppose there are plenty of reasons to "arrange" for plane crashes involving CEOs, so maybe that's a bad comparison. : )
How about negotiators? ...No, they're potential targets, too.
FBI agents? ...No...
Perhaps there's a correlation between the number of flights a person takes per year and the number of people who want to kill that person? ; )
Oh, wait! Travel writers! There's a good sample-set. Travel writers are probably on planes about as often, and come in about the same numbers. ...I'd assume, anyway.
Travel writers fly alot, but they fly commercial. I can't cite statistics off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure the crash rate for small & private planes is WAY higher than the rate for commercial planes.
So I would suggest that you just look at the number of small airplane flights vs. the number of small airplane crashes, then compare that to the risk a politican has since they fly private a lot (as was PW when his plane crashed).
Good ideas. Thanks for the suggestions, guys!
I think rock bands lead in air deaths per profession. It's most likely the time spent in the air on smaller less well maintained air craft.
I remember seeing recently that soccer players have one of the largest carbon footprints as far as wracking up the air miles. Beckham supposedly has the single largest. But almost all of that is on commercial liners and relatively few of them have died.
Plus, when soccer players crash, they eat their dead.
Plus, when soccer players crash, they eat their dead.
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