Flying high, high, high

In the past, Carneades was a pilot. Of Aeroplanes, in case anyone was thinking ships. In the UK, once having gained your pilot's licence, you're automatically sent the Air Accident Investigation Branch's merry monthly bulletin, which spells out in curiously formal language the number and intensity of accidents to aircraft in the UK each month. This last missive was no exception, with the usual slew of pilots falling ill at the controls, bumping into each other with their aeroplanes - usually on the ground, it has to be said,  and falling into ditches, running off runways and other delightful pastimes.

Flying - by plane, anyway - is comparatively safe, these days, and the most you're usually at risk from is an aberrant ice cube in your drink. But it's worthwhile remembering that every month, at least fifteen UK airports report collisions, and that includes at least three of the really big ones. Sometimes these make you laugh, such as the time a mechanic retracted the landing gear on a 747 in Cardiff whilst the thing was standing in a hanger, or last month's incident where the bloke pushing a 737 out didn't see an air bridge and bashed the side in with the wing of the plane he was pushing. But at least the AAIB is one quango we won't be glad to see go.  You can't be too safe in an aeroplane.