How come flying is so safe?
 

I really dont understand it.. looking at the stats flying is the safest way of transportation but why?

Im scared shit of flying.. how can one put himself in a (average 10-30 year old) machine that relies on technology and feel safe?

Flying for me is russian roulette.. you go way up and if shit hits the fan it hits the fan real bad.

Looking at my computer (which is 10 times less compliex than an airplane) it breaks down.. for the most stuipid reasons. software errors.. hardware errors
that seem to come and go without explanation. Im not putting my life on that thing.

Even worse: helicopters.. i thought about this because of the other thread.
The president flies a helipcopter.. but thats just one engine.. if that breaks down (or just 1 blade) for WHATEVER reason you're fucked..

But despite all that.. its still the safest transportation in the world and people rely on it.. so what fundamental aspect am i missing that should change my thoughts on the subject?

Do you drive everyday? Do you realize the chances of you dying in a fatal car crash?

I do not like to fly. At least in a car I feel like I am the master of my own destiny

Something like 200 car accidents around the globe each DAY (probably more), 10 airplane crashes each year. Does that explain it? :)

Thats what everybody says..my post was not about my fear of flying more about the reason why airtraffic is so safe against all the odds so it seems.

But about fear of flying:

Everytime oi mention it people say "fuck that.. think about driving.. walking the streets blabla"

Well.. if a car accident happens.. its a matter of seconds and you're fucked..
If it took 30 minutes to crash you wouldnt have a car crash.

Its not the fear of death with flying for me.. its the fear of sitting in a claustofobic little space doing the wildest rollercoast adventure ever for xx minutes knowing you are going to die and theres NOTHING you can do about it. Thats a total different league than ANY other type off accident on land/water.

Well, it's a matter of numbers.

Accidents are much more likely in a car... there are tons of accidents every single day. However, the odds of dying in a car crash are lower because you're already on the ground, and because stats don't account for particular circumstances of every crash. If you back into a street light, it's a car crash. No one died.

There are no "fender benders" in a plane. If there's an accident, you're falling 30,000 feet to your death. There's no circumstances to take into consideration.

So there's less plane crashes than car crashes.... less fatalities because cars don't fall 30k feet and blow up.

I go by the rule if people were meant to fly theyd have wings..

I can walk.. so a car is my extension.. i can swim so a boat.. why not..

But flying is unhuman as things get, i wonder if the bitches that like to fly also would participate to have sex with me. hmm.

Shoulndt you be delivering a baby..?

Now I am depressed

Mitch

you can jump? fall? :)

edit: ok 'fall' was a bad choice of word

mommy is sleeping on the couch. She's suffering hard. Major cramps and contractions and things.
The doctors will do their thing tomorrow morning. For now, she rests. :(

I would ASSUME they have a plan for how to save the president if the helicopter breaks down...
f.e: some people there must have parachutes, so they grab the president etc'..

i've been on at least 200+ flights in the last 15 years and i feel much safer in the air than i do in the car. especially when there are so many idiots without licenses and immigrants with no insurance, not to mention the people on drugs and drunk, and elderly. out of all the flights i have been on, maybe 10 or so were a little scary because of weather or some sort of minor mechanical thing that made us land with the firetrucks and stuff on the runway. those are pretty good odds. thats just me, i travel alot.

Just saw the other thread.. good luck man and say hi to N. she is on our minds ;)

One of the reasons it is safe is because the planes have to be tested all the time. Every little detail is tested over and over again.. Your car is tested much less..

The comparison between your pc and the onboard computers in an aeroplane is a bit off too.. Your computer is designed to give you a lot of different options - the planes computers are each designed for one specific purpose, which makes them far less likely to fail.. and the critical systems have fail safes in the unlikely event that the main system should fail..

The only part that I would ever worry about would be the engine.. and then only if something happened to get caught in it and make it stop..

If I could change one thing in planes it would not be the technological stuff.. I am not worried about that.. I would have less people on each flight so that us tall people could have more leg room.. :-)

One of the main reason why flying is so safe is the regular inspection every airplane must go through every X amount of flying hours. They change parts before they fail and the pilots are rarely drunk :1orglaugh

Think about all the morons/assholes who have drivers licenses and how packed the traffic is on the streets. Not everyone can get a pilots license.

With my luck I would be the percent that isnt soo lucky....DAMMIT

Damn Miami is a long walk!!!

I have seen some statistics showing that there are more accidents in cars than in planes.

flying is more safe statistically, but you are a stupid little bitch

100%
so what would you do for those xx mins? yell? scream? punch a guy to get 1 last one in? try and find a like minded woman and go out with a bang?

There is no heavy traffic up in the air, plus you got traffic controllers dictating where and when a plane can be in a certain place.

In the air you limit so many factors that can come into play. Such as drivers falling asleep. Drunken driving, running stop lights, trying to run yellows which turn red, debris on the road causing blowouts. Wet or icy roads causing spinouts and rollovers etc etc etc.

Id try to kill myself to make it go away.. but guess what.. im not allowed to take my fucking board-cutter on board anymore!!

I really dont think youre in the mood of shagging with all those g-forces and
being tossed around. Fuck i even have a hard time getting MrThumb in on the bed!!

Funny detail:
When people buy a lottery ticket they assume they have a little chance on
winning the 30 mil.. but when they get on a plane chances of crashing are bigger.. yet everybody seems to assume they are safe.

i'd rather die in a plane crash than a car accident. plane crash will be nice and quick. car accident might leave you paralyzed for the rest of your life or some shit.

I'm with you on all that, I fly maybe once a year but turbulence really gets me. I get sweaty palms, heart beats real fast, like a panick attack. I don't think it's healthy for me to fly the way I get when I am in the air, I think I might have a heart attack one day. This year, I'm driving to florida again, I did it last year and it was fun.

Exactly!

And the fun part of a panic attack up there is.. theres no way to go!!! So that makes it even worse..

Man. i hate flying.. haha

lol you can't jump out of a falling helicopter with a parachute...

The blades auto rotate if the engine stops.. so the chopper will land fast and hard but it will kind of glide in.. So their is a chance of survival.

Also, you get a flat tire, or your engine blows, or you have any kind of small problem, on the ground it's not so bad. In the air, you can't exactly slow down and stop. I'm always worried though the wings won't hold during heavy turbulence, I mean how easy is it to fly a plane with 1 wing? I probably wouldn't mind flying if I knew everytime I flew the plane was like under 7 years old, but Air Canada up here has some real old planes in the fleet.

im guessing they inspect the airplanes before each flight, at least i hope they do

not sure if i heard correctly, but i heard you have better odds getting attacked by a shark or struck by lightning than you do getting into a plane crash.

does seem odd.... those things scare me too. As safe as they are, even....

i have a HUGE fear of flying on a plane. I never flew on a plane before. I did fly in a helicopter when i was 6 tho.

my fear of flying on a plane is a 'control thing'. If im not in control, im worried. If something happens, i cant do anything. Yet, i wouldnt have any fear of flying a plane.

i get really paranoid when im a passenger in the car. I pay more attention to the road then the driver does, lol.

i have never been afraid of heights funny as i grew old... alot of things has changed...even towards the things i see.. I 'm not easily moved by almost anything.. but latley i am becoming too sensitive..

Evrything in this world is like a russian roulette.. you don't have to fly to be in that state of mind.. you walk in the streets.. in the mall .. it's just that the world isn't safe anymore... :Oh crap

http://www.apfn.org/images/pentagon-9-11.gif

you'll be fine, relax

i should say that plane's pilots are well equipped not just like ordinary car drivers who drives crazy on roads.

You have control issues.

i think boat is the safest means of trave/. whens the last time there was a cruise ship accident?

I'm terrified of flying, I won't do it except in the direst of emergencies. And yes, I've been told it's a control issue.

But tell me this: If flying is so safe, how come so many more famous people have died in plane wrecks than in auto accidents? I think someone is lying to us...

In two words....back-up systems (is that 3 words?) :)

For everything that happens on a plane there are 3-5 backup systems.

Let me give you an EXTREME example to help make it easy to understand.....Lets say that one fine August day a pilot in a 737 is flying along when suddenly he loses all power to the cockpit. No instrumens, No Controls, No Nothing. What now? First, the plane's onboard computer would sense the outage and would immediately go to auto-pilot to avoid any collision or any sudden change in altitude or direction. Then, the quick thinking pilot would simply flip the switch to the auxilary power generator and things would resume normally. BUT...let's just make it extra scary and pretend that the auxilary power generator did not come on at all and he still had no power to the cockpit. Well, he would simply begin to fly the plane using his own sight (VFR: Visual Flight Rules) and manual controls (manual controls need no power to work...kind of like driving a car before there was power steering). Great...all better, right? Now, just to make you feel even SAFER....lets just throw another kink the wheel....what if it was the dead of night and the pilot could not see three feet in front of the airplane and he needed to fly using his instruments (IFR: Instrument Flight Rules)? Yes, Virginia, there is an answer for that too......the pilot would simply reach to his right hip and yank on a handle that is connected to a cable that is connected to a tiny door on the bottom of the wing. When that door flips open guess what pops out? A fan. Yes, a fan....but not an ordinary fan....a fan connected to a small generator that produces power when the fan turns like a windmill. This fan generates enough power to power the cockpit even in the worst of conditions.

Now....name any car on the road, any boat in the sea or any other mode of transportation that has that many backups to a simple power failure.

Does that answer your question?

BTW...I am not a pilot, but I average a couple of hundred thousand miles a year on Delta and have a ton of friends and neighbors that are Captains and Pilots.


--T

I wondered about that too, I am also afraid of flying...