I trust the competency of a professional pilot over my driving capabilities, even though the most serious incident I've ever had in 25 years of driving is a parking ticket.

Add in all of the _other_ drivers on the road (compared to professional pilots in controlled spaces), and it's not even close.

You don't have agency over other drivers on the road and they might cause an accident without any fault of yours. That issue is (almost) entirely avoided by planes.

I never thought of that!

But importantly, I have the ability to see and react and avoid the collision. On the plane, I have the ability to eat lunch. Surely this could be considered a difference in agency.

I can't argue that you have more agency in a personal vehicle. Agency and safety are not directly correlated, though: in fact, I'd argue that for transportation, they're often inversely related.

Though relatively rare, there’s a surprisingly long list of aircraft collisions.

Just a few weeks ago an American Airlines regional jet went down near Washington, D.C.'s after hitting a helicopter.