I guess this comment comes as a side effect of my reading so much science fiction, but one would think the human race would have developed a much less potentially deadly form of mass transportation by now. (Sorry, it's late, and I couldn't think of a more concise way to word that.)
Flight really isn't that bad at all, as far as mass transit goes. It's rather safe with all the precautions taken, Cars are far more dangerous than Airplanes to travel by if you look at the numbers.