It always happens in threes - they say

Ever since I was a child, whenever there was a plane crash, I can remember my brother saying: "They say it happens in threes". You count one, then the other, then the third.

So, I began counting when Continental Airlines over ran the runway in Colorado on December 20th 2008. How fabulous that there were no fatalities. Then, the second one US Airways, January 15th 2009, a "crash landing" in the Hudson River. Again, no fatalities. Wow, we're on a roll here. Could it be that third one would follow the same fate as the first two?

I was so saddened to hear that the third one, February 12, killed everyone and even some on the ground. I guess the rule of three has nothing to do with casualties just the event itself.

The eerie thing is that I flew to Washington D.C. on Continental Airlines on the 23rd, just 3 days after the Colorado incident. And then, I flew back to D.C. on US Airways on the 19th, just 4 days after the Hudson incident.

In spite of this, flying commercially has become so incredibly safe in this country. Just by the very fact that the first two incidents yielded no fatalities is significant in itself.

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