Fighter PilotPhysical Danger

Who wants to play, “How Many Ways Can a Fighter Pilot Die?” Let’s see, now, for those keeping track at home, there’s:

Mechanical Failure—Plummeting to Your Death (with or without parachute)
Mechanical Failure—Blowing Up on Takeoff/Landing
Pilot Error—Crashing into Another Plane
Pilot Error—Passing Out from G-Forces and Crashing into a Mountain
Combat—Surface-to-Air Missiles
Combat—Dogfighting
Combat—Alien Attack on Your Base (we really love Independence Day)

And many more! If you’re in the military, there is always going to be an extreme level of physical danger that most civilians never experience. If, added to that, you’re buckling yourself into a jet-propelled death machine loaded up with a dozen different kinds of munitions, the danger level, uh, increases, to say the least.