The other day, I got to take a virtual train trip across Russia, knowing that some of you may have real train rides while you travel to orphanages. But all of you will spend some part of your Russian adoption journeys traveling by air, and that can sometimes be disconcerting. Even more so when the nightly news contains a mention of an airplane crash in Russia, as happened last week.

I have made three round-trip flights to Russia for adoptions, the first on Aeroflot in 1999 and trips two and three on a combination of Aeroflot and Transaero, one of Russia's newer carriers, in 2005. But over the years, I have had the chance to fly--for business and pleasure--on some of the world's carriers with the worst safety records and some with the best safety records. I have been equally nervous regardless because I am one of the world's worst white-knuckle fliers. My dear friend Joe has spent hours trying to talk--and fly--me through it, but I don’t know that I will ever be comfortable in a plane, despite all the statistics that show it is safer than car travel.

Still, putting the words "Russia" and "airplane" together causes a lot of concern for a lot of people. So I'm going to take a few posts to look at why they should--and shouldn't--worry you.

First, there's the legacy of the past. The old Soviet Union threw a huge blanket of secrecy over aviation safety. The West rarely heard officially about crashes, and that has created some lasting distrust.

But Aeroflot has actually had a very good safety record since the Soviet Union ceased to be in December 1991: Just two fatal crashes according to one Web site that tracks safety, AirDisaster.com. That compares with 125 from 1953 through late 1991. Here's another bit of statistics to put this into perspective: American Airlines has just 16 crash records in AirDisaster's database; Continental has only seven.

So, for Aeroflot, points for improvement. My six flights were uneventful and reasonably comfortable. The in-flight entertainment--and couple of shoot-em-up movies in Russian--was not to my taste, but the food was better than I've had on most carriers in the United States lately and the service was helpful.

Now on to Russia's newer carriers and how you can check out a Russian airline before you fly.

--Part Two: Russia's New Carriers And Safety
--Part Three: Checking Out Your Airline In Russia