First of all, if you’re heading out on United today, click here to see if you actually have a plane to board! Yes, United is temporarily grounding 52 of its Boeing 777’s, to conduct a “functional test” of part of the fire-suppression system and this is causing some flight cancellations (thanks for the early heads-up, Joe Brancatelli). Last week it was American’s turn to cancel flights, the week before that, the FAA ordered all the airlines to check their maintenance records. Puzzled? Wondering if our planes are safe? Keep reading (just click “more”).

It all began with Southwest; turns out they missed some inspections (then reported them, then completed them). The headlines were hideous: “Southwest Flies Unsafe Planes”. Much worse for Southwest, I would guess than that $10 million fine levied by the FAA.

But I found myself asking, “Where’s the beef”? What’s behind the scary headlines? Are there genuine safety concerns? Or is the FAA going into overdrive on zealousness?

Now, please know that nobody has a greater concern for safety than I do; I fly way too many miles every year to have anything but safety as my number one priority.

And I’m sure the FAA does too. But you have to wonder if the agency is coming down “hard” now, because of suggestions that some of its inspectors had perhaps too much leeway in terms of “okaying” airline inspection procedures?

In any event, any inspections that need doing, I’m for it.

Now, I ask…are we safe?

Well, if you measure that by crashes involving fatalities, yes, we are pretty safe.

Since 2002, there were no fatal crashes involving major U.S. carriers here (but 2-commuter airlines accidents together killed 66-people).

And according to an interesting article in USA Today, the trend has long been skewing toward ever-safer flights. Here’s a quote from the article:

“In 1946, there were about 1,300 fatalities for every 100 million persons who flew aboard a commercial plane, said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. That fell to 50 per 100 million in 1994 to 1996. From 1997 to 2006, it declined to 8.9 deaths per 100 million people, according to Brown.”

That’s a trend to be proud of.