The latest headlines are often what many travelers use as benchmarks to help decide which airline to choose. Recent accidents, crashes, mechanical problems, labor disputes, delays, financial difficulties and so on, are hot fodder for the media. No one planning a trip wants to go anywhere near an airline that is having even a hint of these kinds of troubles. Any odds maker will tell you that a recent accident makes the chance of that same airline having another accident anytime in the near futur.