But it only makes the news if one of them crashes

According to this website: http://flightaware.com/live/fleet.rvt?ident= there are 5,640 planes up in the air around the world right this very moment, and according to wikipedia, a Boeing 737-800 has a maximum takeoff weight of 187,700 lbs.

That comes to a little over 1 billion pounds floating up in the air right now, holding what, at an average of 100 people per plane, half a million or so people?

Half a million people up in the air...right now...in a billion pounds of metal.

Just something I was wondered about driving home from work the other day.

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