Know anyone with
a fear of flying? Jumia Travel shares the following 4 airplane facts that are
sure to cure any fear of flying.
Air Travel is Actually the Safest
Mood of Mass Transportation
You are actually more
likely to be struck by lightning than die in a plane crash. The odds of dying in
a plane crash are about one in 11,000,000. If you’re afraid of flying, then you
might as well be afraid of pillows, kitchens, petrol or anything else that could
kill you but most likely wouldn’t.
Commercial Aircrafts Undergo
Extensive Testing Before Being Sold to Airlines
Aircrafts go through an
unbelievably massive amount of testing before they can even get off the ground
and they still go through a lot more testing after that. You can watch some of
the extreme tests carried out on aircrafts on Youtube because perhaps if you see
how much attention to detail is paid when building aircrafts, you’ll feel much
more safer in an aircraft than you will feel in a car. Some of the tests done
include: wing flexibility testing, ingestion testing, temperature and altitude
testing, velocity minimum unstick testing, brake testing and other emergency
testing like lightning strikes and low fuel scenarios. A lot of effort is put
into ensuring that commercial aircrafts fly safely because producers want their
aircrafts be extremely safe, if not nobody will buy them.
Any
Surprising right? It might seem like the engines are the only things
keeping a plane in the sky, but it’s not so. Engines help to provide thrust for
the plane but a plane can fly quite normally with just one engine. All
commercial aircrafts are actually designed to operate well with only one engine.
Additionally, a plane with both engines out can actually perform what is called
a ‘deadstick landing’ to land safely. Provided it has the height, a plane with
both engines out can still glide to a safe landing. However, the engines of
planes are extremely reliable and as long as they are well maintained, the
chances of both engines going out on a twinjet plane are less than one in a
billion flight hours.
Turbulence isn’t Dangerous
The best way
to explain turbulence and its effect is to tell you to think of turbulence as
you would bumps in the road on a long drive. Turbulence isn’t a safety concern
and most pilots tend to avoid it because they consider it annoying and a
nuisance, especially when they want to be able to chill in their seats, chow on
some snacks and sip their tea or coffee without it spilling. If you still can’t
get over the up and down motion that turbulence causes, you can reduce your
chances of experiencing it by booking flights for early in the morning or close
to sunset when there is a more stable atmosphere.
