That assumes that cars break while not in use. Tires can pop while being driven, for example. There are plenty of devastating and life-taking accidents that come from car failures.
And plenty of in-use car failures do not take lives. Tires popping during a drive don't often result in death of the occupants of the troubled car nor those around it. If your car engine stops running, you're not going to fall to your death for lack of speed. If your jet engines all stop, the chance that death will result is quite a bit higher.
"If your car engine stops running, you're not going to fall to your death for lack of speed."
You know, to even get your private pilot's license, you have to pass a simulated engine-out. Fixed-wing craft are perfectly capable of gliding without power.
Indeed. They're not required to crash with engines out. But on a passenger jet, the odds of crashing and causing deaths from several miles up when the engines fail is tremendously higher than death being caused by an engine failure at speed on the highway.
Actually, if engines fail at altitude there's much lower risk than you'd think. Even in the case where the damn engines fall off the plane (yes, this really did happen), there's surprisingly few if any fatalities.
Complete engine failure is mostly risky in two situations, over water and low altitude. Ask Sully about having both happen at once and still no deaths!
