President Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to report some good news concerning the commercial aviation industry. Namely, that there wasn't a single commercial aviation-related death in 2017.
Trump's announcement, however, has come under scrutiny from the media and Twitter users alike — but not because it makes a dubious claim. Rather, he's being criticized by those who felt he took credit for the statistic.
Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
The report to which Trump was likely referring was conducted by the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), a Dutch affiliate of the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, The Wall Street Journal said. According to their statistics, not only were there no airline passenger fatalities recorded among U.S.-based carriers, but anywhere in the world. As a result, the ASN ultimately declared 2017 "the safest year in aviation history."
[...] Despite the good news, the ASN did report on 10 fatal airline accidents that occurred in 2017, but the Wall Street Journal explained that half of those involved cargo planes and the other half propeller-powered aircraft.
Trump's tweet, then, is factually accurate, though critics argue that it isn't due to any of his "strict" policies. The Atlantic, for example, argued that the statistic detailed in the report refers to the global fatalities, and that the U.S. hasn't seen a commercial aviation fatality since 2009, or long before he took office.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @06:32AM (9 children)
I don't see how cargo planes and propeller-powered aircraft don't qualify as commercial aviation...
So both Trump and Wall Street Journal are full of shit. Who would have thunk.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @06:34AM (5 children)
Fox news
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Arik on Friday January 05 2018, @07:47AM (4 children)
"
Fox news"
That's spelled eff-eigh-you-ecks. Faux.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:20PM (3 children)
You used proportional text!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:47PM (1 child)
Should we send somebody to check on him? Maybe his account's been compromised.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 05 2018, @08:53PM
Fine by me. That fucking monospace font made reading his posts an utter chore, like shoveling digital shit. I hope whoever compromised his account also somehow made him less of a smug, solipsistic "libertarian" asshole.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by Arik on Friday January 05 2018, @09:56PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 05 2018, @11:04PM (2 children)
Ok, so you don't see it. Original study explains their classification scheme just fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @11:45PM (1 child)
Fuck you. And I define that to mean I dislike silly word games. YMMV
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 06 2018, @02:05AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @06:44AM
That orange nut takes credit for sunshine
(Score: 5, Troll) by vux984 on Friday January 05 2018, @06:50AM
Because you just know they're scrambling around for tidbit facts like this to feed him, and hopefully keep him distracted.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Friday January 05 2018, @07:01AM (4 children)
bytram! You passed on this shit? You could have approved of any number of aristarchus submissions that where more legit than this, which really shows how deplorable this article is. You know that realDonaldTrump posts are not really Donald Trump posts, don't you? You know they are meant to be mocked and scorned? But this one is just beyond all that right at the beginning! If this I what SoylentNews is coming to, I fear for our future. Not only are eds banned from accepting any of the rather fine and witty submissions from aristarchus, just because they are from aristarchus, but they are reduced to accepting click-bait trill like this? I think, I, will just, go, lie down, now. Sniff.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:07AM
I still think the realDonaldTrump posts are pretty cool though. #MAGA e'rryday
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @08:53PM
I dunno, a lame tweet by the president is pretty news worthy!! Oh right, its vaguely pro-Trump, TO THE FRONT PAGE!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @09:48PM (1 child)
hey man
i believe you heard a woosh
the reason this article was posted -- wasn't in celebration of the actual claim.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @07:45AM
This is why TRump Voters always run over motorcycle riders, especially the alt-right of the post WWII type motorcycle ryders, with their bitches on the back, cause Trump voters are just assholes, not real conservatives, and especially not alt-transportation conservatives, like th Bikers that Charlie Manson and Dick Ryan planned on winning the Race war after social security and Medicare are defunded. Congressman Ryan, Paul, Ron, or Rand, (ayn rand, Rooskie) Paul, enemies of America, and motorcycle runner-overers. I am voting Green from now on. Or at least Democrat. Libertarians have soiled themselves with tack cuts for the rich and running over motorcycle riders.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Whoever on Friday January 05 2018, @07:09AM (1 child)
Didn't he promise to reduce regulations?
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday January 05 2018, @07:21AM
So, he now has one, very strict regulation: don't kill anyone when you crash.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by bradley13 on Friday January 05 2018, @07:11AM (4 children)
If there had been a bunch of major crashes, the Hillary! crowd and the Never-Trumpers would certainly have found some way to blame Trump for it. After all, they blame him for anything and everything, whether or not it's under his control. So it's pretty funny watching them get their knickers in a twist, when he takes credit for something that really is just a statistical fluke.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @07:51AM (1 child)
Seriously, go get your screws retightened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @08:05AM
Someone's still salty.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday January 05 2018, @03:12PM
More like some of those people hate it when the opponent takes credit for statistical flukes, and others in the same crowd say "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".
So far the latter strategy is, sadly, more successful.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @04:18PM
So where were you when trump was doing even worse shit to Obama? I right, you only care to defend a horrible sack of shit like trump. Not a good look for you.
(Score: 2) by axsdenied on Friday January 05 2018, @08:21AM (1 child)
Trump updates his post to claim credit the best and safest years on record since 2009.
:-)
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 07 2018, @07:41PM
Let me tell you, I've been making it safe to fly since 1989. I had an airline of my own, Trump Shuttle. Which started with planes & routes I bought from Eastern. Well, Eastern did a terrible job with their planes, with the maintenance on the planes. So we had a terrible failure with one of those. We had a problem with the wheels when it landed. And after that I flew on Trump Shuttle MYSELF. I risked my own life, that's how committed I was to safety. People forget this, but it's one of the biggest, biggest things about running an airline.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday January 05 2018, @02:22PM
politician taking credit for things happening under own term, still happening as usual. Note Trump merely stating a correlation, very political of him. OTOH his critics probably swallowed propaganda from their own side without fuss...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Troll) by SomeGuy on Friday January 05 2018, @04:59PM (1 child)
Why people take anything posted to Twatter seriously, more or less anything written by that orange orangutan is beyond me.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday January 08 2018, @11:18AM
Ook?