I Didn't Upgrade My Seat on a Flight. You Won't Believe What Happened Next!

Airplane crashes have dominated headlines lately. If I were an investigative reporter, I’d scour FAA logs (click that “lately” link). I’d plug numbers into Excel, generate graphs of incidents vs time, and publish trends. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d tie the crashes to the FAA firings, shaping the story to prove my point. Happily for us both, I’m neither of those. I’m just a guy who flew to Dulles last December for a wedding, and chose not to pay to upgrade my seat. That decision turned out poorly.