Do stories of plane mishaps make you not want to fly?

No.

I heard somewhere that planes are one of the safest means of transport. And plane mishaps are not so many. I still trust plane

And moreover, if there is any accident, at least I will die too quickly to even know that.

@Mimishu1995 : Nice answer.

No, not at all. as @Mimishu1995 noted, plane travel, percentage wise is far safer than any other mode of transportation, including bicycling, car travel, skateboards, buses, or trains.

In fact, when there is an air mishap, which doesn’t happen often – I feel even safer because the airlines will be working extra hard to prevent the problems from recurring.

So, I’m happy with air travel no matter what.

@Mimishu1995 GA. That is true. There isn’t anything we do that’s risk free, or we aren’t living much. If we have to go let it be quick.

Overwhelming statistical evidence states flying is far safer than driving a vehicle.
While this is clearly true, at least if you crash your car, you have a chance of surviving!!!!

@ucme : You’re absolutely right.

No. I’ve never flown. Just haven’t ever needed to.

No, I realize there is a chance of injury or death but feel the risk is acceptable. I get into a car and drive every day knowing that is even more risky.

While flying does make me nervous, there is a professional at the controls and that’s more than I can say for drivers of cars. That, and a collision mid-air is highly unlikely, which is also not something I can say on a highway.

Finally, how else can I see anything on this amazing planet outside of North America with so little time and money invested?

@GloPro True. I can see a lot here, but the last time I flew I also got to chase a school of squid and I saw a stonefish. Beautiful, but deadly.

Every time Rick gets ready to fly out of town some show comes on concerning some hideous plane wreck! Every. Time.

@Dutchess_III – every day in the morning paper, there are several news reports of car wrecks here and there in he metro Atlanta area.

I still drive to work.

Yes, and?

No, the stories of mishaps don’t make me want not to fly. The over use of the regional CRJ series aircraft for long distances make me not want to fly. If you’re over 5’6” and sans 18” cock, you can’t hit the toilet bowl because of the curvature of the cabin forces you to stand nearly up against the restroom door in these damn things. And forget a window seat unless you want to spend four hours hunched over and constantly bumping your head against the bulkhead. More and more they use these tiny aircraft, which are designed for regional flights, for long distance flights. I refuse to fly on the damn things anymore. I want my window seat and I want to piss standing up, like the way I was designed.

I did a lot of flying for business and pleasure in my 30s thru 50s, but I was always a nervous flyer and have grown increasingly so as I’ve gotten older. In the past I suffered through two very scary flying experiences, and those, plus any news about big and even small air crashes, reinforce my reluctance to fly except when it’s absolutely necessary. Sure, @elbanditoroso, there are auto crashes in the news all the time, but for me, the thought of dying in a plane crash holds special terror.

No
If you worry about flying, then you have to worry about lots of other things too.
Stories of car accident deaths would make me not want to drive.
Stories of death in war would have made me not volunteer to go fight in it.
Stories of the divorce rate would have made me stay single (I am divorced-oops)
Etc.

@Espiritus_Corvus You made me spit Coke!!

The best flight I’ve ever been on was some small jet, a commuter jet, I think. Dude ran it like a race car around the clouds. It was SO much fun! VROOOOMMMMM! Bank, ZIP BANK!! WHISH!
As we disembarked I gave the Cap’n a thumbs up and asked if I could drive next time! He just grinned.

Never stopped hailing a taxi because of Travis Bickle
Never stopped taking the bus because of Speed
Never stopped boarding a ship because of Titanic
Never stopped eating beans because of Blazing Saddles
Did stop using hair mousse because of There’s Something About Mary

It is far, far more likely that I will be killed in a car accident whether I’m the driver, riding shotgun, or a pedestrian trying to cross the street fucking right on red laws in California..

I have never been afraid of flying, and that’s coming from someone who is generally afraid of falling and sometimes has trouble scaling long flights of stairs. Even after 9/11, I didn’t worry about my father meeting an untimely end on one of his business trips.

No. Driving a car every day is a thousand times more risky than the, fairly rare, plane mishap.
However, I did find a 13 hour flight over the pacific to asia to be a bit nerve wracking, then again, a crash is a crash, and if your plane is going to go down, hitting the ground or the ocean really won’t matter. I am far more at risk in my area for getting creamed in my car hitting a deer, bitten by the numerous rattlesnakes or being attacked by a mountain lion.

No.
You know, it’s funny you ask this question because I do fly (albeit not often) and I never even consider the safety of flying when I do so .
I do find it amusing sometimes as I am passing another vehicle going 60 mph in the opposite direction as me separated only by double yellow lines how close we come to death or dismemberment whenever we go for a drive in our cars.

@Dan_Lyons I think of that too, and think “We are all insane.” Flying down a 6 lane at 70 mph, passing within feet of other cars, moving in and out of traffic, 70, 75 mph. We are all insane.

No, interstates are safer than two lane country roads. The bigger damage would be done by cars coming at you, not cars going with you. But interstates take a lot of concentration.

Like many people I won’t let my fear of plane crashes keep me from flying. I just get on the plain and white knuckle it. It sure beats driving across country or taking a ship from the U.S. to another country. Let’s just say I go to confession and get on the plane. :)

I sat next to a gal once who had never flown. She was TERRIFIED! She didn’t say anything, but after a few moments of watching her out of the corner of my eye, especially when we took off, I put my hand gently over hers (she had a death grip on the arm rest) and told her everything was fine. Everytime the noise of the engines changed I could see her glance over at me in terror. I just calmly read my book. She finally started relaxing.
The landing, though, was one of the WORST I’ve ever encountered. I don’t know if the co-pilot was landing for the first time or what, but as we were coming in on our approach the plane suddenly took a really hard downward dip to the right. It looked like the wing almost hit the runway! My hand (and book) flew up in the air, stuff was falling. It was all over in a sec, the captain righted the plane. I glanced over at my seat mate, my eyes were a little wide, and she said, “THAT wasn’t supposed to happen, was it!”
I said, ‘Um. No. Interesting, huh.”
She said, “I just kept watching you through the whole flight, and if you weren’t scared I’d tell myself not to be scared!” :)
When we disembarked the captain had the cockpit door open and the copilot sat there with his head down, obviously embarrassed. The captain was enjoying every minute of his discomfort. because he had a shit-eatin’ grin on his face!

Flying does not bother me. All the B.S. that is involved with it does though.

@Dutchess_III I have almost the same story. Approaching the runway the turbulence was terrible. We were seconds from landing when the plane tilted hard. The wing damn near hit the trees and the pilot pulled up, taking the plane back up at a very steep climb. I’ve never been on a climb that fast or steep. The pilot got back up to a designated altitude and came over the radio to tell us we were good, Mother Nature wanted to give us a little excitement, and we were just going to circle around and try it again.
The lady next to me had never flown before and I had been reassuring her the whole flight. I told her pilots abort landings all the time. I figured she would find out on her own later that I had lied through my teeth, but I didn’t want her to be any more freaked than she was. And I was trying to comfort myself, too, I suppose. That was scary shit.

It doesn’t bother me too much as flying has become very safe over the years. Look at how many people fly every day and how seldom there is an accident. By way of contrast it is estimated that 1.2 million people are killed each year in road accidents.

Very scary. I like the idea that many pilots are former fighter jet pilots. For them it’s just another day. No big deal. I’ll just land in the Hudson!

Yes, I am a nervous flyer. But I can’t get where I need to go in any other way, so I decide to take my chances. I tell myself that I will either get there or I won’t. Once you are in the air, you are at the mercy of fate. So far I have always arrived alive, so I will continue to fly.

Actually, just to make you feel better, the safest place is IN the air. The wrecks usually happen during landing and take off. Just to make you feel better.

@josie And stories of people dying would have made me not want to live ~

I totally agree with your statement. That’s just too true.

I was in a hail and lightening storm over Utah once. OMG! Major turbulence, lightening zinging around and giant hail pounding the plane. It sounded like machine gun fire. I, literally, put an airline blanket over my head. lol

So. Damn. Scary.
Infact, I just eard the other day that planes get struck by lightening a lot but it somehow absorbs/deflects, based on the shape of the plane. Crazy.

@Coloma In re lightning strikes on jet aircraft, this is interesting

@Dan_Lyons Interesting, thanks! Okay, no fiberglass little toy plane rides for me in lightening storms. haha

Well, I have a daughter who has an “anxiety disorder”. She is just high strung in my opinion, but she worries herself half sick over things that might happen but never do. I have to talk her off the ceiling lots of times, so in counseling my daughter, I have taken my own advice and choose not to worry about things that might not happen, and that you can’t do anything to change.

In other words, if I am in a plane that is bouncing around like a yo-yo with lightening and hail outside, I just sip my tea, read my book, and decide that I will worry about it if we start plummeting towards the ground like a rock. So far I haven’t had to worry.

@Skaggfacemutt Agreed, my experience was many years ago now when I still feared death. Now, at 54, I’d just have another cocktail and say “woo hoo this is interesting!” lol