Tragic events don't mean we have to change our plans

Did we mention, "when it rains, it pours'?

We pulled out that cliché in this space Thursday in regard to hailstorm repairs.

Unfortunately, it applies to other, more serious topics this week as well.

Plane crashes are one example -- on Thursday, an Air Algerie airliner went down in Africa.

It may have been caused by a sandstorm, but authorities aren't ruling out terrorism as a cause of the crash, which claimed 116 people.

Stormy weather is almost certainly the cause of a crash a day earlier in the Penghu islands near Taiwan which killed 48 people.

There seems to be no question about the crash July 17 of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was brought down by a Russian-built SAM in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, scene of a civil war.

News about a lost Malaysia Airline flight sounded all too familiar to us, having heard countless stories and speculation about the loss of MH 370 on March 8. It is suspected to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but no trace has yet been found.

In all, 791 people were lost in the air crashes listed above.

But the coincidences aren't all far away, and don't all involve air crashes.

Tuesday night, Gibbon, Nebraska's city shop burned down, destroying four pickups and a street sweeper, and damaging a dump truck, loader and road grader.

That fire was determined to have started in the engine compartment of one of the trucks.

Early Tuesday morning, a fire in a farm implement dealership in Fairfield, Nebraska, extensively damaged the businesses office and maintenance shop. It couldn't have come at a worse time for an agricultural business, gearing up for fall harvest.

Sunday, an extension cord from a fan that was plugged into a surge protector was blamed for a fire that destroyed a building housing several businesses in downtown Grand Island.

Is it time to swear off air travel?

We wouldn't recommend boarding a plane headed for a violent thunderstorm or a region of political upheaval, but as experts like to point out, it's much more dangerous to drive to the airport than to take a commercial flight.

We didn't hear anything about nearly a million other flights that arrived safely over the same time period covered by the last three crashes.

Last year, more than 3 billion people flew in airliners, and only 210 were killed. Even with this year's tragic toll of more than double that number, commercial airlines are by far the safest way to get from point A to point B.

And, while fire safety is important, most of our homes and businesses don't burn down on any given night.

When it rains it pours? Yes, but that doesn't mean we have to hide in a cave because of statistical anomalies.

Take reasonable precautions when traveling, make sure our homes and businesses are safe places to live and work, let our friends and family know we love them, and get on with this thing we call life.