Plane crash in South America

[Minimalist]

Eek! Plane crashes are definitely frightening. As someone who was in aircraft maintenance, I can assure you that this is an absolutely rare occurrence. It's even far less likely to happen in the military because of the rigorous maintenance standards compared to the civilian world (I should know). Global news makes it seem far more common than it actually is because of the sample size.

That's not what they say.

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-military-ready...fy-2448087

The Air Force currently has about 1,600 combat aircraft, but the service is falling short of almost 700 pilots and 4,000 maintenance crew members. The report stated: “The lack of ability to fly and maintain [aircraft], especially in a high-tempo/threat combat environment, means that its usable inventory of such aircraft is actually much smaller.”