I flipped on the TV tonight and discovered that PBS was running a special about the crash of Swissair flight 111. I was both amazed and disturbed by the program. The documentary team followed the four-and-a-half year, $39 million investigation as specialists sifted through 280,000 pounds of wreckage and combed over 150 miles of wire to discover the cause of the crash. Most of the aircraft pieces were small enough to be held by a small child. (The boxes shown in the picture above held thousands of fragments found along the ocean floor.) The plane must have hit the ocean with tremendous force, disintegrating from the blow.

It was literally amazing that, in the end, the investigators were able to pinpoint -- within a two-inch radius -- the exact wiring that had started a fire in the cockpit above the ceiling. Aided by flammable insulation material, the fire spread undetected through the attic above the cabin eventually rendering the plane unpilotable.

What disturbed me most was this: after the end of the investigation, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board made 23 specific recommendations to the FAA. As the documentary reported, very few of these recommendations have been fully implemented. And, in fact, those recommendations that have been ratified have had their obligatory completion date pushed far into the future. Others familiar with different crashes (TWA 800, for example) may know of additional recommendations that have been made. And who knows the extent of the implemention of those suggestions?

Will I stop flying? No. It's certainly not a head-cracking, bone-breaking activity. Thanks to the excruciating detail with which these planes are built, four million people across the globe fly unharmed on commercial jets every day. Of course, as with any activity -- safe or otherwise -- one should take the necessary precautions. Although I'm sure it's statistically moot, I tend to favor airlines that have newer aircraft, top-tier maintenance records, and highly-skilled pilots. Those are the only things I can control.