Well ok, not really, but now as we just took off from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok I felt genuine fear.
It’s funny because I’ve flown over 50 times in my life and have probably flown every year of the majority of my life. I’m also aware of the statistics, how it’s safer than driving etcetra. Still, I sometime feel scared of flying.
Hear me out. I know most of the following points can be “countered” by comparing them to the car equivalencies, but at the same time they cannot as the user experience in an aircraft is quite different.
One cannot see the environment around the aircraft. You have one window and that’s it, and maybe have reduced vision through 3-4 other windows. You cannot see what’s in front, in the back and msot of the sides of the airplane. This is frightening, especially if you’re already scared of flying.
Landing on water? Yeah right. Those safety movies you see when you board is at the best a hoax.
I feel a problem is the lack of a “safety net”. When falling 5000 meters above the ground you’d wish for a safety net. A giant cartoonish parachute? A super-oversized airbag? Something, anything. The most paranoid of us or maybe your mind just drifts long enough to picture the airplane nose-diving. That’s when you’d want a safety net.
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