Why Flying Is Still One Of The Safest Ways To Travel

Traveling by plane is one of the most common ways to see the world. It is also one of the scariest. You're sitting in a giant hunk of metal thousands of feet in the air. If you're a nervous flyer, you're thinking about all the ways things can go wrong. What happens if you aren't wearing your seatbelt correctly? What if you have to make an emergency landing on water? What's the possibility of another plane colliding into yours? Recent events have done nothing to ease this anxiety. Incidents such as the tragic plane crash over the Potomac River in Washington D.C. and a Delta Airlines plane flipping upside down seconds after landing in Toronto have made travelers more anxious about flying. 

However, planes are still one of the safest modes of travel. In fact, you are more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash. Due to improvements in technology and pilot training, flying has only improved and become safer since the invention of air travel.

Today, pilot training focuses not only on the technical skills required to fly a plane, but on subjects like "crew resource management" and "human factor analysis". Onboard technology designed to keep passengers safe includes fire suppression systems, Traffic Collision Avoidance System, Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning, and more. Many of these systems are designed with similar features, so if one stops working, another can serve as a backup. Additionally, all are checked regularly, sometimes unannounced, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration. If an aircraft fails inspection for any reason, it's not allowed to fly. Aviation changes are being made every year to improve flight safety.

Flight safety has been on a long-term, upward trend since the 1968-77 period. A new study by MIT researchers finds that traveling by plane gets safer every year. In fact, from 2018 to 2022, only 1 in 13.7 million passengers globally was at risk of dying during a flight. That's a huge improvement from 1 in 350,000 passengers in the 1968-77, or, more recently, 1 in 7.9 million in the 2007-17 period.

MIT professor and researcher Arnold Bennet attributes this to "Moore's Law", which states that innovators will continue to double the computing power of chips about every 18 months. In the case of commercial air travel, flying becomes two times safer each decade.

It should be noted that this study only focused on accidents and "deliberate attacks on aviation." Risks from Covid-19, while acknowledged, were not accounted for. Further, there are some disparities that vary from country to country. For example, it's safer to fly in countries such as the U.S. and most European Union countries as well as places like Australia and Japan, etc., than it is to fly in India, Qatar, Kuwait, Mexico, Malaysia, South Korea, and others. Still, the next time you're nervous on a plane, you can be confident your journey will be a safe one.

Despite all this information, you may still have reservations about flying, and that is completely understandable. You're definitely not alone. About 40% of Americans are nervous flyers or have some form of aerophobia. While there is no shame in being afraid to fly, it's important to understand that air travel can't always be avoided. There are, however, plenty of resources to help ease your anxiety.

Services like Dial a Pilot, for instance, connect you directly with an experienced pilot for a 30-minute, one-on-one phone call so you can ask all the questions you need in preparation for your next flight. These pilots have met the company's criteria of 6,000+ hours of flight time, and have experience flying all sorts of aircraft. The only downside is that the service costs $65, but it's worth it if it will put you in a better mindset.

If you don't want to spend money, there are lots of free resources. Some pilots have made TikTok accounts where they answer questions from nervous flyers completely for free. One of the best creators for this is @captainsteeeve who mixes humor with education. He explains everything like the different parts of a plane and how they work, the different noises a plane makes, common misconceptions, the logic behind certain plane functions, and more. There is some peace of mind in knowing that there is an answer for everything.