The Insurer's View

Extract

“Earlier today a wide-bodied jet crashed into the Atlantic with the loss of all 200 passengers.”

I am not attempting either to scare you into leaving early or alternatively attempting to copy Orson Welles and his Martian invasion by making this statement— because nothing of tht kind actually happened. What we can be sure of, however, is that in the course of the next decade a similar statement will be issued by the news media of the world. It may not be into the Atlantic, it may be a mid-air explosion or break-up, it may be an incident of landing or take-off. All we can be painfully certain of, is that it will happen, and we in this room today will be more vitally involved than most.