true story

[stuck]

A colleague arrived back form his holiday yesterday with this tale.

On the flight out there was a young child (~5years old) sitting in the seat in front of him. When the plane landed the child said in a voice loud enough to be heard by most of the passengers, "We've survived!"

[HansV]

A wise child...

[stuck]

You don't like flying either then?

Ken

[Leif]

...or just plain observant

[HansV]

You don't like flying either then?

I'm not afraid of flying, but I don't particularly like it either.

[stuck]

I'm not afraid of flying, but I don't particularly like it either.

Sounds like me too.

Ken

[StuartR]

I really hate flying, even though I do a lot of it.

[ChrisGreaves]

I really hate flying, even though I do a lot of it.

My neighbor is flying to Europe, and is apprehensive about the flight.
I tell her “Sit in the rear-most seat”.
She complains “Then I’ll be last off the plane!”.

She is right, of course. She’ll get to watch 300+ passengers leap up and fight for the overhead bins so that they all can stand in the aisle for ten minutes while someone up front offers effusive thanks to each of the cabin crew.

I remind her that she was not apprehensive about sitting in a cushioned seat in a safely stationery aircraft a couple of minutes ago. She was worried about the take-off and landing portion of the flight.

True.

I invited her, and I invite you, to study the photos of the next ten airline crashes posted in your local newspaper.

I bet you a free lunch at The Montreal Deli that in every one of the ten crashes the tail section is shown intact and lying upright on the ground, even though the rest of the fuselage has burned to a cinder.



And ...


My neighbor is flying to Europe, and is apprehensive about the flight.
We discuss safety, especially the figures published by airlines that boast the low number of deaths per million-passenger-miles flown.

Who cares?

I consider planes to be quite safe when they are traveling at 600 mph at 30,000 feet or so.

I consider planes to be quite safe when they sitting dead-still on the tarmac alongside a terminal building.

Planes are designed to be really good at flying, and like most chunks of metal, they are especially good at sitting still.

It’s the transitions between the two states that worries me, the transitions known as “take-off” and “landing”.

I bet that the statistics of “deaths-per-takeoff/landing” look a great deal worse than those of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown”.

I invited my neighbor, and I invite you, to study the news stories of the next ten airline crashes posted in your local newspaper.

How many occurred during take-off or landing? How many occurred at 30,000 feet (e.g. a bomb explosion or similar?).

I thought so.

Now, use some basic mathematics to transform those figures of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown” to “deaths-per-takeoff/landing”.

Enjoy your next flight.

But if, like me, the adrenalin pumps hard during take-off and landing, I know how you feel!

[BigKev]

I really hate flying, even though I do a lot of it.

My neighbor is flying to Europe, and is apprehensive about the flight.
I tell her “Sit in the rear-most seat”.
She complains “Then I’ll be last off the plane!”.

She is right, of course. She’ll get to watch 300+ passengers leap up and fight for the overhead bins so that they all can stand in the aisle for ten minutes while someone up front offers effusive thanks to each of the cabin crew.

I remind her that she was not apprehensive about sitting in a cushioned seat in a safely stationery aircraft a couple of minutes ago. She was worried about the take-off and landing portion of the flight.

True.

I invited her, and I invite you, to study the photos of the next ten airline crashes posted in your local newspaper.

I bet you a free lunch at The Montreal Deli that in every one of the ten crashes the tail section is shown intact and lying upright on the ground, even though the rest of the fuselage has burned to a cinder.



And ...


My neighbor is flying to Europe, and is apprehensive about the flight.
We discuss safety, especially the figures published by airlines that boast the low number of deaths per million-passenger-miles flown.

Who cares?

I consider planes to be quite safe when they are traveling at 600 mph at 30,000 feet or so.

I consider planes to be quite safe when they sitting dead-still on the tarmac alongside a terminal building.

Planes are designed to be really good at flying, and like most chunks of metal, they are especially good at sitting still.

It’s the transitions between the two states that worries me, the transitions known as “take-off” and “landing”.

I bet that the statistics of “deaths-per-takeoff/landing” look a great deal worse than those of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown”.

I invited my neighbor, and I invite you, to study the news stories of the next ten airline crashes posted in your local newspaper.

How many occurred during take-off or landing? How many occurred at 30,000 feet (e.g. a bomb explosion or similar?).

I thought so.

Now, use some basic mathematics to transform those figures of “deaths per million-passenger-miles flown” to “deaths-per-takeoff/landing”.

Enjoy your next flight.

But if, like me, the adrenalin pumps hard during take-off and landing, I know how you feel!

Sit at the back. You never hear of them reversing into mountains.

[John Gray]

Sit at the back. You never hear of them reversing into mountains.

And it's close to the loo...

[StuartR]

...And it's close to the loo...

The way I feel about flying that might be a distinct advantage.

[jonwallace]

StuartR wrote:
The way I feel about flying that might be a distinct advantage.

but first listen to this

[BobH]

With the help of Barney Google, I found this site: Fatalities by Phase of Flight (scroll down a bit for the graph).

It confirmed my suspicion that descent, approach, and landing are more likely to have fatal accidents (52% of fatal accidents), but there is a higher percentage of passenger fatalities during take-off and climb out. The graph requires a bit of attention. Read the percentages at the top; don't be mislead by the curve and color.

Notice that 12% of accidents involving fatalities occurred taxiing, parked, or under tow (but no fatal injuries to passengers).