Aviation
Did you know it’s safer to fly on a jet airliner than to drive your car to the airport? It’s safer to fly than sleep in your bed and risk falling off it? It’s safer to fly, than pop a bottle of champagne upon arriving at the airport lounge? You get the point.
Flying on a commercial jet airliner is one of the safest forms of transportation in the world.
Nearly everything related to airline travel is geared towards Flight Safety – from the process of how passengers board an aircraft to how aircraft are made, maintained and operated. It is essential that, regardless of the cause of a fear of flying, participants are educated as to what these processes and requirements are, and why they make flying safer than the actual drive to the airport!
Did you know? – Statistics suggest that if a person flew every day of their life, it would take 19,000 years before they would succumb to a fatal incident.
Some Facts about pilot training
Imagine how safe our roads would be if drivers had to gain 1,000 hours experience on their L Plates, including more than 6 driving tests and 18 written exams, before they could get their licence to assist another driver?
Then assist another driver for 3,000 more driving hours before becoming eligible to complete another training course to gain a licence to be the driver!
Once in the driving seat, the driver would need to pass a driving test every 4-6 months to retain the driving licence.
This lengthy and stringent process is similar to what is required to be a Captain of a jet airliner! In fact most major airlines have even higher requirements…
Some facts about aircraft
To enhance safety, all major Aircraft Systems are built with a Primary, Auxiliary, Back-up and Emergency System. Therefore, in the rare occasion that a system fails, there are always two or more back-ups already in place.
All Commercial Airliners are required to undergo regular and scheduled maintenance. In fact every 5-6 years of a jet airliners life it will receive over 50,000 hours of servicing. Imagine that kind of attention on your family car!!
Some facts about weather
Modern Airliners are designed to fly through adverse weather, and can actually land using the autopilot without the pilots being able to visually see the runway at some airports.
On average, every commercial airliner is struck by lightning once per year. Lightning poses no safety hazard to aircraft or their occupants during a strike.
Turbulence is simply the result of flying through areas of non-stationary air, no different to riding in a boat over non-stationary water. Turbulence is therefore ‘waves of air’ that an aircraft passes through, exactly the same as riding in a boat on a choppy day.
Next time you’re in a car, play close attention to the bumps in the road as you drive. You’ll think nothing of it. This is exactly the same as the bumps in the air when you fly.
Ultimately, aircraft are designed to withstand severe turbulence. In fact meteorologists are known to charter aircraft to fly into cyclones to gather data!
Turbulence is actually avoided more for comfort than for safety.
