[quoted from here:]
(BBC NEWS | Americas | The dangers of space travel)
Given that the landings and launches seem to be the most dangerous parts of a spaceflight (or an airplane flight, for that matter), shorter spaceflights (Virgin Galactic, anyone?) will probalby results in more accidents/deaths per mile (or per hour).
My aunt and uncle used to fly separately when their 3 kids were younger. Nobody thought it was weird.
That’s the first I’ve ever heard of that. Though we did take the precaution of finalizing our life insurance policies before we took our trip to India a few years ago.
I’ve heard of people doing this, but my parents never did. Of course, they are pretty much fearless people who like to joke about things like earthquakes and plane crashes, and will decide to fly somewhere on a moment’s notice just for fun.
This was the way my family handled it. Take care of the legal end of stuff and leave enough to care for the kids and hop on the plane together.
So when you all went on trips together, did you all travel in the same plane because your parents figured “what the hell”?
If so, were you separated into different sections of the plane in case, like, the tail end of the plane ripped off while travelling through the Chilean mountains so that at least half your family could remain alive while learning new cullinary techniques?
When you know people who are 100% dead because of a plane crash, the risk becomes a bit more real rather than some statistic on a page. If staggering flights a few hours apart is going to eliminate that risk, than I don’t see it as a complication or a wealth/time sucker.
I do not do this with my family as I believe that there is a greater risk that we all die in a car accident before we would die in a plane crash.
My parents never did this with us growing up because we or they never flew anywhere.
However, good friends of my parents that had 4 kids would do this frequently even when the whole family was going somewhere for vacation (70’s). The dad would fly with two of the kids and the mom would take a separate flight with the other two kids. They didn’t want the risk that the entire family would be wiped out with one plane crash.
I thinks thats kinda funny myself. The Jones gene pool MUST survive!
If everybody dies, nobody is going to be around to be upset about it are they? Except grandma and grandpa I guess.
Where do you draw the line though? Do you always take separate cars when you go places? Do you buy food at two completely different stores for the various family members? If you have a relative that was mauled by a bear (that is how my uncle died) do you just not go camping?
It reduces the risk, but it doesn’t eliminate the risk. Nothing will ever eliminate the risk.
Furthermore, what if one parent dies, either in a plane crash or via other means? Does the remaining single parent never fly again until/unless remarried?
People are stupid about risk.
I wonder how many of these people who split up on the plane flight also smoked, as was the custom back then?
Exactly - if we’re gonna die, we might as well all die.
ISTM you’d come ahead ahead researching which airline has the best safety record … and putting both parents on that airline.
My parents never flew anywhere so it didn’t come up.
In 2002 I flew to the UK with my (now ex) husband, mother in law, step father in law, brother in law and two sisters in law. My ex made a will before we left but said to me “At least if there’s a crash and we go, we’ll all go together and no one is left behind to grieve.” And I replied “Uhh… MY parents? My brother? Your father? You don’t think they might be upset to lose us all?”
It was only when we got home that I read his will and realised that, in case of our untimely deaths, he’d left everything to his siblings and parents… the people who were on the plane with us.
My parents did this until I was about 16 or so. That would be around the late-1970s. I specifically remember them going to Hawaii without me and they took separate flights.
Funny you should start this thread. Mr Boozilu and I were supposed to go to Paris in April (same flight) but had to reschedule due to the volcano. We’re now going in July and decided to take separate flights. (Grandparents are coming to watch the kids.) I’m the one who doesn’t get the direct flight, but it’s giving us some peace of mind so we think it’s worth it.
I remember my parents mentioning doing this when I was a little kid - they travelled a fair amount.
Then again, my dad’s a “What if?” kind of a guy and usually finds the darkest, most pessimistic answer to that particular question, so it never seemed odd to me that he would think this way. I also don’t find it odd that other people do find it odd, considering the … umm … odds involved in car accidents vs. plane crashes.
Sorry. I typed myself in, and couldn’t find my way back out! 
My first thought was that the potential of survivor’s guilt would be huge. “Oh, if only I had been on the first flight, then my baby sister wouldn’t be dead.”
I knew a doctor who always made a point of saying the he and his wife never flew on the same airplane. I thought it was a bit pretentious.
He died of a heart attack at age 60.