On October 31st Virgin fired 13 of its cabin crew who had posted derogatory comments about its safety standards and some of its passengers on a Facebook forum.
Steady advances in automation and robotics are now invisibly encapsulated in navigation, weather avoidance, traffic management, flight controls, safety and communications aids that materially benefit the two-pilot front cabin.
In 1999, a private jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart and five others crashed after apparently losing cabin pressure "for undetermined reasons" after takeoff from Florida, the National Transportation Safety Board found.
But crashes have become more survivable, thanks largely to tougher safety standards that require seats capable of surviving major impact and slower-burning cabin materials.