I have an irrational phobia of flying, I know all the stats about how flying is safest way to travel. I was wondering if someone could explain the why though. I’m hoping that if I can better understand what makes it safe that maybe I won’t be afraid when I fly.
Edit: to everyone who has commented with either personal stories or directly answering the question I just want you to know you all have moved me to tears with your caring. If I could afford it I would award every comment with gold.
Edit2: wow way more comments and upvotes then I ever thought I’d get on Reddit. Thank you everyone. I’m gonna read them all this has actually genuinely helped.
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Pilot here:
Most people mistakenly assume airplanes do not want to fly, and that they need to be held up in the air by magic and delicate balancing of all forces, and if anything goes even slightly amiss, it will fall out of the sky, because there is nothing there to support it.
The truth is, that like water, or earth, the air is not nothing. It is there and it is fully capable of supporting aircraft. And aircraft want to fly – all (civil, at least) aircraft are inherently stable in flight. If you disturb it, it will tend to return to stable flight. If I let go of the controls while flying…nothing happens. Or at least not fast. If all engines stop, the airplane does not stop flying. If we encounter turbulence, the airplane does not stop flying. If the pilot dies, the other pilot has to pick up the slack, but the aircraft will keep flying.
So, to balance it out a bit there are indeed residual perils and risks, but they are in this day and age all well known and managed. (That is what we as pilots do, as much as steering the aircraft – we manage and mitigate risk).
But think of it as inherently safe to fly, because the air carries the aircraft just as naturally as the sea carries a ship or a paved road carries a truck. Planes, by design, want to fly.
I understand the fear of flying. I think it might stem from the fact that, if there is an accident, there is a good chance you will die. Think about all the fender benders and minor car accidents that occur that have no casualties or even injuries. They happen millions of times a day. If the accidents : casualties ratio was the same for cars as it was for air travel no one would drive. Period. Many other comments have explained the safety of air travel so I won’t go into it again but I want to let you know you shouldn’t beat yourself up over this fear. It might be irrational from a stats point of view but people don’t think about stats when faced with the real world.
Someone in the comments section pointed out that you really wanted facts that would help you get over your irrational fear. As a person who struggled with this, here are some facts that helped me.
*Planes can still fly without full engine power.*
It’s not great, they’ll have to land immediately but a lot of planes can keep going with less than their maximal engine power. Even if they can’t, they can keep gliding on for a long time without any thrust. If you’re high up, there’s definitely an airport in gliding range.
*Planes can fly without electrics.*
This also isn’t great, but it’s very unlikely likely, and in large planes control surfaces are handled with hydraulics. Even if you lose power, the pilot can still steer.
*Doors cannot be opened once you are high up.*
A small one, but a big irrational fear is someone might open the doors. You can’t. The air pressure seals them shut, so you can’t get out.
*The pilot is a human too.*
A strange one, but the most weirdly comforting. When you’re in a plane, it can feel like you’re just in a large tin that careering through the air uncontrollably. This is a vehicle. There are people in control of this vehicle. You aren’t the one flying is, but *someone* is.
Hope this helps.
Aircraft mechanic here.
What makes air travel so safe is simple. Money, lots and lots of money.
I could go on and on about redundant systems, how lift works, the engineering, statistics, etc.
That’s all cool, but at the end of the day, there’s a goddamn metric shit ton of money in air travel, and if planes crash, people die… Dead people don’t spend money, and those alive people won’t fly. If people don’t fly, CEO’s don’t buy mansions and yachts. It’s more cost effective to keep the plane flying vs. falling.
The culture of aviation safety is extremely strong and it’s said the regulations are written in blood. Any accident is investigated and there’s also a system where you can file on any mistake you make anonymously. If you somehow get in trouble for it the resulting enforcement is diminished or not enforced at all.
Frankly there’s a lot of systems out there who should study aviation’s safety culture for improvement. I knew of a pilot who was also a surgeon and he went around the country giving training to surgical teams on minimizing mistakes by using aviation techniques like checklists.
You know what really helped me?
Watching those Air Crash Investigation shows. Don’t get me wrong – I still *hate* having to fly – but knowing a little more about the technical side of airplanes and those brave souls who fly ’em actually makes it – *somehow* – just a teeny bit less daunting.
Understanding the science parts a bit more helps me get past the irrational “YES BUT THIS ONE TIME I’LL BE THE UNLUCKY CHARM AND WE’LL ALL DIE” parts.
(fwiw I’m old and have flown for literally decades and I still dislike it. But that’s why God invented vodka and valium)
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