You probably heard about the terrible air crash in New York on Saturday between a small plane and a tourist helicopter. Nine people were killed.
There is a follow-up article today in the Daily News by a reporter, Joe Jackson, who went to check out the tourist helicopter trade a day after the crash. The article makes it sound as though he was expecting there would be no customers for rides. But there were plenty of people who still wanted an aerial tour of the city. Jackson got on a helicopter himself. The French family he rode with “were more interested in the sites below,” but “I was warily eying the other helicopters and planes off in the distance and kept wishing I could slide the window open to get a breath of fresh air.”
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that someone would be more apprehensive about taking a ride the day after a crash. What’s interesting, however, is that the journalist seemed to be the only person around who was really worried. Now, maybe his fear was really just shtick, or maybe he was sent by an editor to bring back a story about how tourists are petrified to ride helicopters — and, since he was the only one who was scared, he had to write himself into the story.
But to me, the story illustrates something else.
Most of the unperturbed tourists he writes about are Europeans, as were the people who died in Saturday’s crash. (It is, after all, high tourist season in New York; for all I know, 90 percent of the people who take these rides are foreigners.) Why are they so much less jittery than Jackson himself?
One thought that came to mind was that the average tourist may be a better risk assessor than the average New York journalist. (If so, that‘s a scary thought.) Maybe it also has something to do with the fact that media hysteria in Europe about this kind of tragedy tends to be a shade more subdued than in the U.S.
The fact is, there could hardly be a safer time to ride a tourist helicopter than immediately after a crash, when everyone is on high alert. But just as investors love to sell in a crumbling market, we are all groomed every day by media hysteria to throw away all logic when it comes to assessing risk. I am glad the French family didn’t fall for it, and that they had a nice ride.
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It’s a biased sample. Somebody who worries about the risk wouldn’t sit in these helicopters.
I think you may be right. I am also a journalist, and I find that I am often the most freaked out person at times where bad things could happen, but usually don’t; planes being the most obvious situation. I blame it on the fact that my job requires that I read, write and analyze, more about these tragic events than I probably should. So when I’m in a potentially dangerous situation, all I can think about is the last thing that went wrong in that situation.
Does anyone think his apprehension is genuine?
Of course all that rationality goes right out the window as soon as you mention genetically modified foods or gun control, or whatever.
Perhaps the logical answer aren’t media differences between the states and Europe, but the fact that a non-English speaking tourist simply might not have heard about the crash. I mean who travels to a foreign country just to watch local news?
There was a horrific crash the other day on the highway I use to commute to work. But you know what? Rush hour hasn’t been noticeably less congested.
I don’t know about journalists but I find that Americans in general are very risk averse when it comes to media hyped dangers like plane crashes, bombings, violent crime, etc…
… far out of proportion to the actual probablity of something happening to them.
Are Foreign Tourists Better Risk Assessors Than New York Journalists?
Maybe and maybe not.
As others have said the tourists may not have been aware of the crash.
As for New York journalists I would say that they are probably very poor risk assessors as they are probably not experienced in much activites other than journalism colleges, the news manufacturing industry, and dealing with editors/media. These journalist may also have an attitude that nothing exists outside of the NYC metro area that is of any importance… And if they had a concept of real world risk, they wouldn’t know how to describe it either- hence Mr. Dubner’s employment.
By example, many NY journalists think that any rifle with a clip is an “assault rifle” and any motorcycle with a windshield fairing is a “super fast sportbike motorcycle” and that both of these items are “very very dangerous and risky”.
We don’t know how many tourists had planned to take a ride, thought otherwise and backed down post-crash. Anyone still willing to tour the skies doesn’t fear going down and isn’t representative of public opinion. Knowing how many people were riding the tourist helicopters compared with the previous week would help complete the story.