Frequent flier offers his take on air safety.
I guess you could say I’m a frequent flier. With close to 4 million miles as an airline passenger, “I’ve slipped the surly bonds of Earth” — a lot. You would assume that with all that seat time under a properly secured seat belt, I would have a story or two of the time when the plane did that scary thing, and I saw my life flash before me. Nope. Not once has that happened.
I’ve had almost 4 million miles of perfect takeoffs and landings and pleasantly cruising the friendly skies on domestic and international flights. Sure, I have experienced some light turbulence from time to time, but basically nothing to get excited about.
So, am I lucky? Or is buying an airline ticket a calculated risk?
First, here’s the obligatory researched statistical data: Over a lifetime, the chance of dying in an “air and space transport incident,” as the National Safety Council describes it, are 1 in 8,357. To put that in perspective, by its data from 2010, an individual is more likely to die from causes including heat exposure (1:8,321), choking (1:3,649), in an accident as a pedestrian (1:723), a fall (1:152) or unintentional poisoning (1:119). So nothing’s really changed over my adult life — except that I’ve been hearing the same story for years: “You’re more likely to (insert manner of death) than to die in a plane crash.”
Still, aerophobia or aviophobia (fear of flying) is real for 20 million Americans. And it likely becomes more acute with recent news of one airline’s engine malfunction during a flight, which killed one passenger, and news reports questioning another airline’s safety record. Some believe the fear is based on not being in control of one’s safety — as if anyone could have complete control over that anywhere.
Now, I’m not trying to minimize this condition in any way. My own mother is inexplicably afraid of flying. The mere mention of air travel elicits a sign of the cross, followed by a request to deliver her from certain death, as she, ironically, looks skyward.
Of course, being Puerto Ricans, we apparently still regard commercial aviation as some sort of modern miracle. Have you flown to Puerto Rico or with Puerto Ricans recently — or ever? Upon landing, without fail, we will reward everyone onboard with an ovation. The applause is our way of saying, “We’re so lucky to have flown, and survived.”
Don’t believe me? Try it. I guess the miles have numbed my sense of what is no doubt still an amazing concept: 300 humans, in an aluminum tube, hurtling across the sky, 600 mph, at an altitude of 38,000 feet.
Sounds perfectly safe to me. Let’s go fly.