Flight Risk
Being a frequent flyer myself, this data visualization about fatal commercial passenger plane incidents since 1993 particular drew my interest. I understand that flying is the safest way to travel, however deaths do still happen. It’s a sad ‘graph’ to watch and analyze, but I think it brought home its message. What initially drew my eye to this interactive data source was the colour and design. I really like the simplicity of the graph. It’s so easy to follow. The circles represent the fatal incidents in these aircrafts. The bigger the circle, the greater the death toll. But there’s more to it than that. You will notice that some circles are transparent while others are opaque. Opaque means that the cause of the incident is confirmed, while transparency means that the cause is not confirmed. Speaking of causes, you will notice five distinct and bright colours. Each colour is associated to a different cause. Yellow is human error, blue is weather-related, orange is mechanical, red is criminal, and grey is unknown. The colour makes it very easy to understand what happened to the aircraft. And the arrangement of the circles is just in numerical order via the dates in which it happened. You will notice in my screenshot there are two large red circles, these of course being the September 11th hijackings of 2001. Visually, I think the simple design of this data works extremely well as it gets the message across without complications. I also enjoy the interactivity of this visual. I can select what cause to look at specifically, when the incident happened during the flight (such as mid-air, take-off, or grounded) and even sort which incidents were the deadliest, or the most recent. The data was meant to bring attention to these unfortunate events. The message is clear; air may be the safest to travel, but things happen and people get hurt. Does this visual scare me? To some extent yes, but it was meant to bring awareness. It’s upsetting to know all these lives are gone. It’s more upsetting knowing that a good number of these were preventable.
http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/20140724-flight-risk/