Why burning planes make me feel better than ever about flying.
It’s easy to get scared. It always has been. When the news lights up with stories and pictures of planes engulfed in flames, our imaginations run wild with the panic that a situation like that might cause in ourselves. Think about it, a few days before I wrote this, 2 separate jets in two different places suffered severe fire damage, American Airlines Flight 383 with an uncontained engine failure and Fedex Flight 910, with a landing gear collapse leading to a horrific chain of events that resulted in the aircraft being burned to the point of being written off. A few months earlier on August 3, 2016 Emirates Flight 521 crashed on landing after an unsuccessful aborted landing and burned itself into a wreck of conflagrated metal of frightening proportions. Three separate incidents. Three different aircraft from two different manufactures. Three different airlines and airports.
Three successes. Yes, Successes. Despite the tragic and heroic loss of firefighter Jasim Issa Mohammed Hasan who died during an explosion of the Emirates aircraft while fighting the resulting fire, the outcomes of these three aviation nightmares is remarkable. Yet not unexpected. The fact that 3 large fuel-laden aircraft burned after accidents while all 472 passengers and crew went home to their families is a testament to the outstanding professionalism, safety standards and quality built in to modern aircraft.
Wait! Did I say “modern”? Yes I did. The Emirates 777 was 13 years old, the American Airlines 767 was also 13. The FedEx MD-10F was 44 years old. 44 years old. Why is this significant? Because it shows that despite these aircraft being older than many of the cars we drive, certainly older than the computers we probably use, and definitely older than your cell phone, we can depend on these machines and the people who fly them to get us home safely. The concert of players behind the scenes, from highly trained flight attendants who are the first line of defence to passengers when disaster strikes, to the fire fighting personnel who respond in seconds when needed the most give us confidence that if the highly unlikely ever does happen, chances are that you will go home that night.
Many travellers look at flight attendants as nothing more than sky waiters, at pilots as glorified bus drivers, at aviation mechanics as grease monkeys. Yet these people and more practically guarantee a safe flight to you within the powers of human capability. Did you ever thank the crew that cuts the grass beside the runway? Or picks up garbage? Checks the taxiways and runways for little bits of tires and trash blown in on the wind? You should, they protect the engines from ingesting anything that could threaten your safety.
What about the never sleeping eyes in the tower? The fire fighters dressed and ready to go 24 hours a day? The security officers at the ready? The maintenance crews keeping the runway lights, the radars and equipment ready at all times? Every one of these people and more make flying the safest way to travel the world has ever seen.
Yes, accidents still happen despite our best efforts to prevent them. Yet you can rest assured that a dedicated group of professionals stands ready to intervene at a moments notice to keep disaster at bay, with their lives on the line if called upon just like Mr. Hasan did in August.
Fear is often a choice if it comes down to it. So look at the facts and the track record of modern aviation and make your choice. You know where to find me, it’s window seat or bust. -James Pindera-