Crashing Scares Me...Not Flying!

I don’t know if I’m just paying more attention but it seems as though there have been more planes falling from the sky lately. Every time I look at the newspaper or watch the news on TV, one more aircraft has crashed somewhere in the world.

They still say that flying is the safest mode of transportation but what they don’t say is that you’re less likely to walk away from a crash involving a plane then you are from a car. Of course there are fewer drunk drivers behind the yolk of an aeroplane so at least we have that going in our favour.

Flying isn’t something that I fear although I’m not a huge fan of it. Crashing on the other hand is something that I have a major phobia about. There’s just something about being 35-thousand feet in the air with nothing underneath you in a machine built by people who might have been having a bad day or serviced by a mechanic who forgot to follow the checklist that makes me feel a little anxious.

Of course being a big man, most aircraft seats aren’t really built for me. So the added fear of possibly plummeting to earth while being uncomfortably squeezed into a seat doesn’t excite me either. If I’m going to die, I’d prefer to be as cosy as possible.

I’ve never had any close calls but I did have a scare during my very first flight. I was flying from Toronto to St. Petersburg, Florida with a friend of mine named Doug. Neither of us had flown before and we were a bit apprehensive. For most of the just over two hour flight things went well. We had one moment when we saw another plane outside our window that we felt was closer than it should be. When we commented about it another passenger behind us also remarked at how it seemed odd but no problems occurred.

As we began our descent into the airport for landing we flew into a thunderstorm with lightning visible in the clouds. My anxiety level rose as the plane began to jostle around more and more violently. We had a woman sitting next to us who was a “veteran” flyer who said this was normal and not to worry. Her opinion changed when we hit one air pocket and the plane dropped rapidly sending loose items in the plane flying. It was the most terrifying three to four seconds of my life. Instinctively I grabbed the seat in front of me while at the same time grabbing the hair of the woman in that seat as well. Oops!

We eventually made it out of the storm and landed safely. The woman next to me said that was her worst experience on a plane and I was hoping it would be mine as well. I swear to you when I walked off the plane I got down and kissed the ground. I’ve flown many times since then and all have been much better experiences. The best was when I flew in the cockpit of a Canadian Forces C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. It was a media flight and I knew the pilot so he invited me up to the flight deck. It was so much more interesting and impressive to have that vantage point. Plus, knowing the pilot seemed to put me at ease.

Even keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground is no guarantee you’ll survive a plane crash. Sometimes karma and bad luck play a nasty role. I think back to the recent accident in the U.S. involving an unlucky man jogging on the beach. A small plane was making an emergency landing on this particular beach and the only thing in their way that they couldn’t avoid was this jogger listening to his iPod while having his back to the plane. He never saw it coming.

I guess what it all boils down to is that it doesn’t matter whether you fly or not, when your time is up on this earth there’s nothing you can do about it so I try to live my life without fear as much as possible. You won’t catch me doing crazy things to increase the risk of dying but you can’t go through life worrying about what might happen or you’ll miss enjoying an all too short life while it does happen.