[Excerpt] This book, written more than a decade after that fateful day in September 2001, attempts to make sense of what happened next within America's airline industry. In particular, my aim is to reconceptualize the idea of risk and safety, drawing parallels between aviation and other risk management professions, particularly finance. The question motivating my analysis is simple: Has profit seeking been allowed to trump safety in the US commercial airline industry? If so, what are the repercussions for risk—should we expect another major airline crash sometime soon?