http://www.askmen.com/toys/top_10/16_top_10_list.html http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/1999/47.htm
Today's tragic accident will no doubt skew the statistical data of the mortality rates of an astronaut. I don't know how the statistics are gathered and compiled, or how they evaluate the data. If you track the deaths by the number of hours on the job for an astronaut that they are actually in flight, versus all the hours in training, that is one way to measure it, and then the mortality statistics are much higher. Thinking of heroic acts today, I remember a television show that was on PBS a couple of decades ago. The show was a docu drama named "Danger UXB." It was about a group of British soldiers during WWII who had the unpleasant job of disarming bombs that were dropped during the bombing of London by the Germans. Many of the bombs back in those days did not explode upon striking the ground. http://epguides.com/DangerUXB/guide.shtml http://us.imdb.com/Title?0078593 http://us.imdb.com/CommentsShow?0078593 Talk about a stressful job. I can't imagine. The show, a British production, was tremendous theatre. How heroic the real UXB division must have been we will never really know. That show did a marvelous job of showing the viewers what it must have been like.
i would have the thought US President would be the most dangerous job. what, with a mortality rate currently running at nearly 10% (and only 4 years on the job)...
Gee, and I thought the deadliest job was either the driver on an explosives truck or a convenience store clerk.