These Airplane Facts Can Help Heal Your Fear of Flying
For some people, air travel is just another part of daily life. But for others, it is a major source of stress and anxiety. The good news is that most fears boil down to misunderstanding, and in these situations, knowledge really is power. If the thought of flying on an airplane makes you anxious and breaks out in a cold sweat, these safety facts are your medicine before, during and after your flight.
Traveling by air is the safest form of public transport
Someone probably told you at some point that you are more likely to die in a car accident than in a plane crash. Well, that’s true. According to David Ropik, a risk communication instructor at Harvard University, your chances of dying in a car crash are roughly one in 5,000. And your chances of dying in a plane crash are roughly one in 11,000,000 . In fact, there is a 1 in 13,000 chance of being struck by lightning in your lifetime .
Fatal accidents do happen, of course, but they get so much media attention that you start to think they happen all the time . Between 1982 and 2010, 3,288 people in the United States died from aircraft-related causes . That’s about 110 people a year on average, and these numbers include private jets and non-accident accidents, in addition to commercial travel. And flying is only getting safer. Julie O’Donnell, a Boeing spokesman, explains that fatal accidents occurred every 200,000 flights in the 50s and 60s. Fatal accidents now only occur once every two million flights.
It is also important to understand that most accidents are not fatal. Airplanes lose altitude, slide off the runway and experience severe turbulence without injury. Even if your plane is in an accident, you still have a chance to survive. The National Transportation Safety Board estimates the probability of survival is 95 percent based on studies of past commercial aircraft accidents.
And if you think, “Yeah, what about terrorism?” Then that is also unlikely. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight analyzed data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and found that there is roughly one terrorist attack out of 16,553,385 sorties . You are more likely to be eaten by a shark . You may joke that “I’m not afraid to fly, I’m afraid to crash,” but if I were you, I would be more afraid to miss the opportunity to visit my family and see the world.
Commercial aircraft are extensively tested before being sold to airlines.
Car companies make their cars safer by showing crash tests in their commercials, but you never see rigorous tests done on airplanes unless you search for them. Perhaps if you did, you would feel safer. Aircraft go through a huge number of tests before they even get off the ground, and there are still many tests to be done after that. You can watch some of the more extreme tests in the video above on the Business Insider YouTube channel :
- Wing Flexibility Test: Airplane wings flex to varying degrees – sometimes up to 90 degrees – and eventually flex to a click . This is necessary in order to find your ultimate strength, which always requires much more strength than any aircraft has ever experienced in real flight. The wings are very strong, they can bend and bounce.
- Ingestion testing: These are two separate tests. The first is a bird collision test, where dead chicks fire at the engines to simulate a bird collision in flight. We also test the windshield. The second test is a water intake test, in which the aircraft lands on a runway covered with water, as if it were raining heavily. This is to prevent a ton of water from entering the engines.
- Temperature and Altitude Testing: Airplanes are operated and flown in very high and low temperatures to ensure that their engines, materials and systems perform as expected under all conditions.
- Minimum Detachment Speed Test: The test pilot will pull the tail of the aircraft across the runway to determine the absolute minimum speed required for takeoff.
- Checking the brakes: Airplanes are loaded to maximum weight and equipped with worn brake pads. The aircraft then picks up takeoff speed before it hits the brakes and comes to a complete stop.
Aircraft are also tested for other emergencies such as lightning strikes and low fuel scenarios. But they should give you an idea of how important safety is to aircraft manufacturers. If something could happen to the plane, they probably checked it out. They want their planes to fly safely as much as you do. Because if they don’t, nobody will buy them.
Oxygen masks work even if they don’t look like them
There is an old myth that emergency oxygen masks on airplanes don’t actually do anything because they are not connected to oxygen tanks. Well, just because the bags don’t fill up with anything doesn’t mean they don’t work. As this video from YouTube Today I Found Out explains, there’s a lot going on that you can’t see.
Oxygen masks are triggered when the pressure in the passenger compartment drops. If you do not wear a mask, you can pass out “useful” consciousness in just 15 seconds due to lack of oxygen. This is why you are encouraged to wear yours before worrying about anyone else. However, the oxygen that these masks provide does not come from a centralized source.
How they deliver oxygen is simple chemistry. When you pull the mask over your face, the spring-loaded mechanism triggers a chemical reaction that generates oxygen inside the mask device itself. This is why it is important to don the mask as they suggest during the emergency procedures demonstration on every flight. The bags on the mask act as a reservoir for oxygen, and while they don’t inflate like a balloon, they still prevent oxygen from escaping into the thin air around you. It may seem like you are not getting enough oxygen, but you will have a lot of free oxygen until the pilot descends to a safer and more breathable altitude.
Commercial plans can fly safely with one engine and can land without any
It might seem like the engines are the only thing keeping the plane in the sky, but they are only part of the equation. They provide thrust, which is important, but the plane can fly normally if one of them fails. All commercial aircraft are designed to operate flawlessly with only one engine.
But what if they all go out? One word: slip. As commercial pilot Lim Hoi Hing explains in his blog , an unengaged plane can, by inertia, land safely because of this:
… that all planes can land safely, but the distance they fly varies. Gliders can stay in the air for a long time. A single-engine aircraft facing engine failure can also glide enough distance to land safely, provided it is at altitude.
Tim Morgan, a commercial pilot, explains on Quora that the plane can still move forward thanks to inertia and gravity. The speed is more than enough for the plane to create lift and not fall from the sky. Airplanes with inoperative engines work in the same way as gliders, and yet can fly long distances and land .
However, I would not worry about what happens to your flight. The odds of both engines failing in a dual-mode aircraft (which is most commercial aircraft) are less than one in a billion flying hours . These motors are very reliable. And even when that happens, there is still a lot of hope. Air Transat Flight 236 lost all grip on the Atlantic Ocean and was able to safely land on the nearest airstrip 75 miles away. No injuries. The pilot even had to go around the runway because the plane was still gaining too much altitude by the time it arrived.
Planes are not as disgusting as you think
If your fear of flying is more of a fear of unpleasant, germ-contaminated rooms, there are a few things you need to know. First, the cabin air system does not process air filled with microbes and then shoot them in your face. The video above, from the SciShow YouTube channel , explains that only a fraction of the air in the cabin is recycled. Even so, it is only half the air, and it is filtered 20-30 times an hour with HEPA filters similar to those found in hospital intensive care units.
The other half of the cabin air isreplaced every two to three minutes by the aircraft’s built-in air supply system. So your office, home, or local coffee shop is hotter than an airplane. If you are really worried about airborne bacteria and the like, you might be better off blowing your face through the vents .
When it comes to germs, surfaces all over the plane are a major concern. Most are as good as stains in your own home such as sinks, counters, and pet supplies (if you have them), but there are some hotspots that can be avoided. Tables with trays , flush buttons for toilets and fountains for drinking at the airports are the most contaminated areas , but hand washing, when possible, use hand sanitizer, wearing wipes in your hand luggage and not touching your face, probably more than enough to save you from illness .
Turbulence is not dangerous, and there are ways to make it less likely.
If there is anything you can take away from these facts, do it this way: turbulence is not a safety issue. As commercial pilot Patrick Smith explains, turbulence is a nuisance, but not a huge danger to you or the plane:
In every sense, an airplane cannot be turned upside down, thrown into a tailspin or otherwise thrown from the sky, even in the event of a strong gust of wind or an air hole. Conditions can be unpleasant and inconvenient, but the plane will not crash. Turbulence is inconvenient for everyone, including the team, but it is also, for lack of a better term, normal. From a pilot’s point of view, this is usually seen as a convenience issue rather than a safety issue.
The main reason pilots do their best to avoid turbulence is annoyance. They want to be able to drink coffee without spilling the same as you. Think of turbulence the same way you think of bumps in the road on a long trip.
However, up and down movements can make you feel anxious and nauseous. If you want to reduce the likelihood of turbulence, the National Weather Service suggests that you try booking flights early in the morning or closer to sunset, when the sun is not heating the Earth’s surface and creating a less stable atmosphere. Also, if you can pick your seat, pick it right above the wings . The seats near the nose and tail are the most mobile.
This story was originally published on 11/07/16 and updated on 6/06/19.