Reply To: Why do people get nervous when they fly?

RebYidd
Me too.
Pilots are taught to act as if every second will be the last one with a spinning propeller. The entire flight I am constantly looking around to find a safe place to land if the engine quits. I play out in my mind different scenarios and how I would react to them (I have the emergency checklists memorized.) . I act as if every flight is a checkride, and the examiner will pull the throttle any second of the flight. If anything does happen c”v, I will be expecting it and will not panic. When pilots have this mindset, you hear the stories of planes landing on highways, beaches, even trees, safely.
Even if there are no desirable places to land, and a crash is inevitable, pilots are taught to “fly the airplane into the crash”. If for example, the plane is heading for trees, and is too low to land on them, fly the plane in between 2 trees, the wings will take the damage, and the fuselage, with everyone on board will be fine.

Then there are the pilots who think it can never happen to them. That those stories only happen to other people. If something c”v happens they panic and freeze up. Then you hear the stories of planes crashing into the water, forests… and usually ends with fatalities.

NYOB
You may be right, but I wonder if anything would be different if there would be news stories on every single car crash, and would say the reasons behind the crash. Would people think twice before getting in cars?