This issue — i think is a little more complicated. (And, i dont know the answer). What is the amount of risk that you are allowed take vis a vis shabbos. (Obviously, if you drive anywhere — there is a chacne that something may happen). If you go back and look at all of the United Thursday 3pm flights and all of the El AL 1pm Thursday Flights — how many of them have not landed on time and therefore caused Chilul SHabbos. I suspect — from the press coverage — that of these 104 flights in the last year — 1 did not make it. That would be a 1% chance. Lets look at all Thursday flights to Israel. If you conclude that the chances of getting to Israel on time is 99% is that sufficient? (We do a similar calculus with elective surgery. Even though there is a certain percentage that you could die during surgery — which is always a chance with general anesthesia — we still allow elective surgery in most instances.) Thus — while I do understand that there is reason to avoid traveling on Thursday/Friday — is the chance of something going wrong hallachically significant?
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