I'm not particularily afraid of flying, but I'm a hyper-realist, so I'm always very aware, no matter my travel method. I'm in fact at my most nervous in a car, precisely because of the statistical likelyhood of getting killed or maimed, and I am very aware if a driver is being sloppy or complacent, something that usually gets me very nervous indeed. Everyone thinks they're not gonna die, but we're surrounded by people who fuckin die, all the time.
Airplanes though, again - I go to my bank-of-statistics, practically nobody dies in Europe in airplane accidents. Helicopters - that's a different story. Don't ever think of accepting a helicopter ride for your birthday, those are like fate-tempting machines for dying on your birthday, you and the useless pilot that took you with him down.
The thing though, is that airplanes are high, high up. You get something wrong w a car, you just crawl it to a stop, and get out of the car. I've been in that situation several times. I've been in a car that rolled on the roof - I opened the door, and got out.
If a train breaks down, it's a bit nerve-wrecking while on the tracks, but you can get out.
Boats, now we're getting into scarier territory
Planes, that's just.... death or miracle. Those are your options, most of the time: Death or miracle.
Twice I've been truly anxious - beyond just the occasional "Hmmm, this take-off is taking a liiittle longer than I'm used to, *Recalls docu footage of passenger plane exceeding runway, and exploding inside forest*"
First and best one was several years ago, while some 15 minutes after leaving Oslo (which means we have mostly just been climbing) the pilot informed the passengers that the landing-gear was unresponsive, and that we had to turn back and land in Oslo again, but first and foremost, we had to circle above Oslo - for reasons - for about 1,5 hours.
Having watched way too much "Air Crash Investigations" me and my brother quickly deducted that this has to do with burning off the fuel - so IF the plane HAS to land - with no wheels - we dould be less likely to explode on impact. We explained this to a guy next to us, who didn't seem too comforted by this.
Anyway, about half an hour in, the pilot was all "landing gear works now!" - and we landed in Oslo, and were given a free night to catch the next day flight.
(As a bonus, the next day, I was getting my next flight from Madrid to Valencia, and this time we were informed of a piece of luggage that could not be identified or attached to any passenger. All luggage had to be taken out of the plane, and double checked, while the passengers had to wait. Immediately, passengers begun to fiddle with their phones, to call home etc, about this delay. One of these passengers had an arab face and a beard, so two British women lost their shit, and accused him of being The Terrorist. They refused to be in the same plane as him, so they demanded to be allowed to leave. Now - logically - to law enforcement - if you suddenly want to jump off a plane before it leaves - YOU are the potential terrorist, so they took the two women into custody - as well as the arab dude, for good measure.)
Second, was this summer, on my approach back to Oslo, we were going in for landing, and were so close as to be maybe no more than 30 seconds from touch-down - as in, I can see the tractors in the fields, I'm no longer "way up there", and then I see the whole runway, and... right away, I'm thinking "why can I see it? Shouldn't it be right below me?" and as soon as I think that, I hear the thrusters throttling up hard, the way you'd throttle them when you want to go from flaps-down-full-brake to all-out-lift-off speed. And indeed, did we lift off, and veer away from the airport, and by that time, all I can think of is "There's 50 000 trees here. The ONLY possible way to emergency land - is on the goddamn runway!!!"
Only then does the pilot come on, and explains that a bird was sucked into the engine of a plane below - ON the runway, and that the runway now has to be thoroughly inspected. So, I'm thinking "Great! I wonder how they inspect runways! What, do they have to compile a report, and send it for analysis? Will we be allowed to land this month?" but of course, another part of my brain goes "It's an airport, they'll not allow a runway to stay inactive for any lengths of time, they're fanatical."
and the last thought was true, because we only needed one, long U-turn, in order to be allowed to land again.
Those are my worst cases, but a friend of mine had to land in a small propellar plane, in a storm, and experienced an aborted landing where he could see the runway coming at him from the wing - as in, they were coming in sideways. I love details, so I asked if he screamed. He admitted that he DID scream, and that he clasped onto the seats, his hands turned to claws. Upon finally landing, nobody clapped, he said, instead they sobbed and cried. People embraced, and some vomited outside.
=D
Airplanes though, again - I go to my bank-of-statistics, practically nobody dies in Europe in airplane accidents. Helicopters - that's a different story. Don't ever think of accepting a helicopter ride for your birthday, those are like fate-tempting machines for dying on your birthday, you and the useless pilot that took you with him down.
The thing though, is that airplanes are high, high up. You get something wrong w a car, you just crawl it to a stop, and get out of the car. I've been in that situation several times. I've been in a car that rolled on the roof - I opened the door, and got out.
If a train breaks down, it's a bit nerve-wrecking while on the tracks, but you can get out.
Boats, now we're getting into scarier territory
Planes, that's just.... death or miracle. Those are your options, most of the time: Death or miracle.
Twice I've been truly anxious - beyond just the occasional "Hmmm, this take-off is taking a liiittle longer than I'm used to, *Recalls docu footage of passenger plane exceeding runway, and exploding inside forest*"
First and best one was several years ago, while some 15 minutes after leaving Oslo (which means we have mostly just been climbing) the pilot informed the passengers that the landing-gear was unresponsive, and that we had to turn back and land in Oslo again, but first and foremost, we had to circle above Oslo - for reasons - for about 1,5 hours.
Having watched way too much "Air Crash Investigations" me and my brother quickly deducted that this has to do with burning off the fuel - so IF the plane HAS to land - with no wheels - we dould be less likely to explode on impact. We explained this to a guy next to us, who didn't seem too comforted by this.
Anyway, about half an hour in, the pilot was all "landing gear works now!" - and we landed in Oslo, and were given a free night to catch the next day flight.
(As a bonus, the next day, I was getting my next flight from Madrid to Valencia, and this time we were informed of a piece of luggage that could not be identified or attached to any passenger. All luggage had to be taken out of the plane, and double checked, while the passengers had to wait. Immediately, passengers begun to fiddle with their phones, to call home etc, about this delay. One of these passengers had an arab face and a beard, so two British women lost their shit, and accused him of being The Terrorist. They refused to be in the same plane as him, so they demanded to be allowed to leave. Now - logically - to law enforcement - if you suddenly want to jump off a plane before it leaves - YOU are the potential terrorist, so they took the two women into custody - as well as the arab dude, for good measure.)
Second, was this summer, on my approach back to Oslo, we were going in for landing, and were so close as to be maybe no more than 30 seconds from touch-down - as in, I can see the tractors in the fields, I'm no longer "way up there", and then I see the whole runway, and... right away, I'm thinking "why can I see it? Shouldn't it be right below me?" and as soon as I think that, I hear the thrusters throttling up hard, the way you'd throttle them when you want to go from flaps-down-full-brake to all-out-lift-off speed. And indeed, did we lift off, and veer away from the airport, and by that time, all I can think of is "There's 50 000 trees here. The ONLY possible way to emergency land - is on the goddamn runway!!!"
Only then does the pilot come on, and explains that a bird was sucked into the engine of a plane below - ON the runway, and that the runway now has to be thoroughly inspected. So, I'm thinking "Great! I wonder how they inspect runways! What, do they have to compile a report, and send it for analysis? Will we be allowed to land this month?" but of course, another part of my brain goes "It's an airport, they'll not allow a runway to stay inactive for any lengths of time, they're fanatical."
and the last thought was true, because we only needed one, long U-turn, in order to be allowed to land again.
Those are my worst cases, but a friend of mine had to land in a small propellar plane, in a storm, and experienced an aborted landing where he could see the runway coming at him from the wing - as in, they were coming in sideways. I love details, so I asked if he screamed. He admitted that he DID scream, and that he clasped onto the seats, his hands turned to claws. Upon finally landing, nobody clapped, he said, instead they sobbed and cried. People embraced, and some vomited outside.
=D
