Anyone Else More Nervous About Flying?

Yes, but not because of safety, but because of all the delays. In the last year I have flown to LAS 3 times, needing 11 segments, 4 were on time and 7 were delayed, 3 of which were caused by maintaince and only 1 delay was because of weather at the airport I was using. I have yet to get to LAS or home to PIT on the scheduled time, with the average delay being 2 hours.

 

No.
However, I was surprised that the only airline mentioned in mishaps was Southwest

 

If you are that nervous or anxious about flying, then I strongly advise you to not drive in the Washington DC/Baltimore MD area where the probability of you getting in a car accident is exponentially higher than you being in an airline collision or failure.

 

Yes, always nervous. Funny because I’ve been flying since I was five years old. I had no issue until my mid 40s and then boom hit me like a ton of Bricks. It’s been amped up with all the BS going on between air traffic control, Boeing, poor maintenance standards. So Xanax is my friend When flying. I realize it is still an irrational fear, but the reality is I still need to go places and I’m gonna get on the plane. Just need help mother helper.

 

@Hoofy7 this is your thread!

 

No, I'm not. A lot of these close calls have likely been happening for years, but now that the news cycle is hyper-focused on anything plane-related every incident seems to be reported, often way out of proportion to the actual risk that exists. Meanwhile there's car crashes every hour, and the only time I really hear about them is in the local traffic report.

 

Fixed that sentence for you. This is the real reason because the 24 hour news cycle has its teeth in this after what happened with the Alaska Air 737.

A few months ago, a buddy of mine was on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for a IAD-LAX flight when the jet way went the wrong way and peeled the aluminum skin right off the fuselage.

This before the Alaska Air 737 incident, so I would not have know that had happened through social media and the media.

 

The 24/7 news cycle has changed the time allotted to all kinds of stories. Lots of time to fill and anything that can keep viewers gets lots of play. Flying in general fits the bill…near misses, unruly passengers, ancient systems for airlines and ATC, and massive amounts of delays and cancellations.

In pro wrestling they used to say “Red turns green”…it kind of fits news reporting perfectly. Why do you think every storm is the worst one ever?

Anyway, I am always a little nervous when I haven’t flown for a while. Other than that, I am not afraid to fly.

 

The horror!!!!

 

At times I certainly do get anxious over it. But some of it is from the buildup of the flight. Such as getting to the airport on time, checking in and getting to the right gate, especially when they've been changed This happened our last flight. We were sitting down eating then all of a sudden realized our gate changed. No Announcement So had to go running through the airport. Then the flight itself was not good because of the weather. I haven't gotten sick on a flight in decades. I thought for sure on this one I was going to.

But always anxious about flying for many reasons...

 

I say no, but also just chose a less convenient departure time for a cross country flight because it was on an Airbus and not a Boeing.

Flying is safe. Considerably safer than driving.

The issues at Boeing have made things a little less safe, but still statistically safer than driving from your house to the office.

 

Humans are a superstitious lot. A few more incidents is, in isolation, never a good thing. But the system functions very well and as so many have pointed out ...