USA Today story on airline safety keeps numbers in context
A photo from the Indianapolis Star illustrated Gary Stoller's story.
Gary Stoller of USA Today spent six months looking into airplane safety records to determine that “millions of passengers have been on at least 65,000 U.S. airline flights that shouldn’t have taken off because planes weren’t properly maintained.” Gary writes: ”A review of hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act chronicles repeated instances in the past six years of shoddy maintenance and improper procedures done by ill-trained and ill-equipped workers, even some instances of coverups of bad repairs that put fliers’ safety in jeopardy.”
Gary Stoller
The story then lists specific incidents as well as information about what’s being done in Washington to reduce the number of faultily repaired planes.
Today’s Tip: Keep numbers in perspective to avoid misrepresenting an issue.
Gary’s story notes that the 65,000 flights that shouldn’t have taken off represent a small fraction of all the 63.8 million flights in the past six years. This slide show includes tips on how to avoid misleading readers with numbers.
