Today, this headline on Foreign Airline Safety from USA Today caught my eye:

Millions of Americans board flights on foreign airlines every year with little or no idea of how safe they will be, and the U.S. government provides no help telling them which ones may be risky to fly.

In contrast, the European Union gives passengers a safety yardstick by listing foreign airlines ? more than 270 of them from 20 nations ? it has banned from flying into airports within the EU because it considers the airlines too unsafe.

The U.S. government’s aviation safety regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, lists nations’ civil aviation authorities that do not meet minimum international standards for safe flying and do not provide proper oversight of airlines based within their borders. ?Read More…

Isn?t it a sad time to think that we need to come across an article like this to make us question whether or not it is safe to board an airline flight within another country?? Is it that we believe other countries are beholding to the same air safety standards that we have in the US or are we simply too trusting?? Shouldn?t it be eye opening to learn that 22 of the 103 foreign civil aviation authorities evaluated by the FAA don’t meet minimum international safety standards and don’t sufficiently oversee the airlines in their countries?

While all forms of travel pose potential risk, did you know that Australia?s own Qantas Airways is known to have an unrivalled safety record? Qantas states that its commitment to safety is the number one priority and recently this vow was put to the test as ash from a Chilean volcano eruption filled the air causing Qantas to cancel several flights between Australia & New Zealand.? While the public and certainly delayed passengers have weighed in on the decision Qantas stood behind its policy to put safety first even when other airlines were continuing to fly similar routes.? What do you think?? Should the safety of passengers override political correctness or even ?peer? pressure?