Many people have a fear or phobia of something. Some have a fear of flying, or spiders.
But, most people don't understand complexies that drive our fear. In the center of the
brain there is an almond shaped organ known as the amygdala. This is the part of the brain
that provides powerful emotions. This fear is hard wired into our brains.
Recently a prominent fear researcher has written about the science of fear in his landmark
book called, "The Emotion Brain". He begins with the tragedy of 9/11,and points out that more
common & deadly tragedies are overlooked because they aren't as new or darkly glamorous.
For example, he mentions about terrorist attacks in the last century. Fewer than twenty attacks
from terrorism has caused more that 100 people to be killed. However, if you compared those
numbers with thosed killed by diabetes,or heart diease then its no comparison. This is similar
to what I write on the first page of my website. More people are killed from medical malpractice
then aircraft accidents. So there's nothing to fear but fear it's self.

Just this past fourth of July weekend there was an incident involving a Northwest Airlines B757 that suffer huge amount damage on the nose dome of the fuselage. The aircraft was inbound to Florida & flying at around 15,000 ft when the passengers heard a loud bang. There was also a lot of lightning in the area at that time. However, it remains a mystery on the exact cause of the damage. The bottom line is that aircraft are made tough to take a lot of damage like that rather its a bird strike from a large bird, or lightning. But, in any case this is prove to trust the industry & the technology that will keep you safe.

There was a study this week by Greenwich University in London that studied the best chances of survivors based on your seat assignment. They studied over 105 accidents & interviewed over 2000 survivors of former plane crashes. The study concluded that the best seat for you to survive a plane crash was an aisle seat near the front within 5 seats from an exit. I am sure the study had a good purpose, but I think it gives a force sense of security. In my experience it doesn't matter much where you sit because most people who die from airplane crashes die from either the trauma due to the direct impact, or smoke inhalation. Regardless of where you sit, your odds improve of surviving if you have that mind set to survive such as paying attention to the safety briefing, or acting quickly when an emergency happens. For instance, think of the people in the World Trade Center top floor of building 2. When the first airplane hit the first tower, People had precious minutes in the other tower to make their escape. Some people listen to their intuition  & escape while others hesitated & perished.

As I write this blog, the oil prices peaked to $139 a barrel. This is unprecedented. The airline industry was never meant to operate in this type of conditions. There is no doubt that as of now there are at least 2-3 airlines that are in danger of relapsing back to bankruptcy protection, or liquidation. Those airlines that survive may feel incline to cut corners with safety just to survive. Nervous fliers need to especially now peruse airlines they may travel on carefully to make sure you get the best & safest service for your dollar. We all remember the fiasco just a few months ago with safety inspectors giving breaks to Southwest, & American Airlines. Although this rarely happens, it does happen.

Just yesterday the latest oil price was going at $132 a barrel. The airlines are under extreme pressure to stay afloat. Some airlines are just beginning to get rid of some nonprofitable aircraft such as the regional jet. The latest is that American Airlines & AMR will replace the 50 seater RJ for more profitable aircraft. The RJ made a depute in the early mid-90's. Back then many passengers were complaining about the lack of comfort on smaller, & noisier turboprops. Some people didn't like flying turboprops because they thought they were unsafe. Well like it, or not the turboprop is making a come back. I seen it coming as early as 2003. The 50 seat RJ has a difficult time making money in todays airline market & high oil prices. Besides American, many airlines will feel the pressure to put back turboprops on some flights. Whats important to know is that turboprops are just as safe as jets. Turboprops actually have jet engines thats were you get the name turbo vs turbine.  

Just yesterday the latest oil price was going at $132 a barrel. The airlines are under extreme pressure to stay afloat. Some airlines are just beginning to get rid of some nonprofitable aircraft such as the regional jet. The latest is that American Airlines & AMR will replace the 50 seater RJ for more profitable aircraft. The RJ made a depute in the early mid-90's. Back then many passengers were complaining about the lack of comfort on smaller, & noisier turboprops. Some people didn't like flying turboprops because they thought they were unsafe. Well like it, or not the turboprop is making a come back. I seen it coming as early as 2003. The 50 seat RJ has a difficult time making money in todays airline market & high oil prices. Besides American, many airlines will feel the pressure to put back turboprops on some flights. Whats important to know is that turboprops are just as safe as jets. Turboprops actually have jet engines thats were you get the name turbo vs turbine.  

Yesterday there was a news report about airlines making their pilots fly a lot slower. It was easy to watch that report & be confused by thinking that was an unsafe practice. The truth is that most pilots flying for the airlines have a history of flying fast. There are many reason for this theory. The flight crew wants to arrive to their destination early so they could get into the hotel early. Many times the crew wait for the hotel van over an hour so it makes sense to arrive early. They also want to get the passengers home early because it makes the airline looks good, or it may help passengers with their connections. You also have pilots who commute to & from home so they often push the throttles up to get home quick. In any case, their are multiple reasons why pilots fly fast. Whats important to know is  its not a safety issue along as the pilots fly within the operation speed limitation of the aircraft.
So with the current crude oil prices hovering at around $122 dollars a barrel, their no surprise that airline management is starting to make pilots fly slower to what is called LRC speed (long range cruise) or economic speed. Most airlines management always preferred pilots fly at these slower speeds anyway. Management is just enforcing this more because of the high oil prices. It would keep them in business longer. The airlines are also requesting pilots take as many short cut routing as possible, & taxi with one engine as much as possible to further save cost. All these methods are safe, & save the airlines money so they could maintain the airplanes.

One of the things I see a lot with people who have a fear of flying is their failure to give up control when they fly. They worry so much about so little such as what "if's" that they don't see real risk in everyday things that we give up control to like the medical health system. For instance, NY City came up with a report today in the NY Post that shows in New YorkCity alone that thier were 300 malpractice deaths. Take that number in contrast to the fact that their were no US Major Airline & Regional Airline accident deaths at all last year in 2007. I always advocated that passengers with a fear of flying must learn to be better passengers by giving up control. You will learn to control your fear & overcome fear of flying if you learn to trust the industry. Too many people are fixated on F-E-A-R which I describe as ancroynm F=force E=evidence A= appearing R=real. Basically what this means is stop giving credit to something thats not real such an over hype fear of flying when its not justified. If you don't fear going to the doctor,or taking an elevator, traveling by boat, etc, then you are giving more hype to your fear then you should. Overcoming fear of flying is more about mind over matter. You must have a strong desire & motivation to.

Many people who are fearful fliers wonder whats goes on in the cockpit. Many people don't understand flying yet alone what goes on in the cockpit. I believe understanding what goes on behind the scenes will help you toward your goal of overcoming your fear of flying. For starters, pilots fly a schedule called a line. A line holder schedule is for a month so you fly with the same crew for a month. Its important that you get along with those other crew members because you are married to them for one month. The pilots generally meet in flight operations were they check the weather, call their dispatcher for a briefing, then the captain briefs the other crew members on the weather, passenger loads, any special needs passengers, maintenance items, security, & usually an encouragement to the other crew members to speak up if they see any safety concerns. Then the pilots & cabin crew break off for their separate preflight checks. First, the pilots look for the maintenance logbook for that aircraft. They are checking first to make sure that the book & aircraft numbers match up. Then they check the book for any open maintenance write ups. An open write up is anything pertaining to maintenance of the aircraft that has been wrote up as broken. Once something is wrote up, the aircraft is essentially grounded into a mechanic fixes the item & resigns the book as ok, or a pilot defer the item to be fix later providing its not critical to safety. Pilots deferring a maintenance item is refer to as a MEL (minimum equipment list) which is approved by the FAA. The purpose of the MEL is allow airlines the options to delay or currently fix any non critical item so as to avoid any unnecessary delays. Usually an item could be deferred as long as its not critical to flight safety, & theirs another redundant or backup system to rely upon. The items can be defer anywhere from 3 days to 120 days. To give an example, Lets say you plan to take a road trip somewhere & certainly discover your cruise control in your car is not working. Well, are you going to cancel your trip? Off course not! You could still drive your car safely without cruise control. Its not critical!. The important thing to remember is that its the FAA & aircraft manufactors that determined what goes on the MEL list, & not the airlines. Now that the aircraft maintenance book checks out, the Captain & First Officer would do their own separate preflights. Usually the Captain checks the exterior aircraft & does systems checks to make sure everything is working from generators, fuel pumps, to warning systems like wind shear alert ,& stall test. All these checks usually takes about 10-15 minutes. The First officer usually does the aircraft performance stuff that details the max weight the aircraft can takeoff at, calculating speeds for takeoffs,weight & balance,getting their takeoff clearances, setting up the navigation routing & getting current weather at the field.
Meanwhile, the flight attendants are doing their checks that include checking oxygen bottles, fire extinguishers, medical equipment &, safety. Hopefully, by giving you some insight behind the scenes this will help you with your comfort level & to overcome your fear of flying.  All these training professionals are working hard behind the scenes to keep you safe so you could focus more on being a better passenger by giving up control & trusting the industry.

http://www.flyinganxiety.com

Many people don't know, but theres been a quiet war going on for over a decade now involving low cost air carriers, & the traditional legacy air carriers. Low cost carriers include carriers like Southwest, Spirit, Airtran, Allegiant, & Frontier. On the other side are legacy carrier such as American, United, Delta, Northwest. The legacies are all carriers thats been establish for at least 50 years. The question is which group is safer?
Well they are both safe! While its true that low cost carriers operate on a strategy of lower cost operations. This means that they may not pay their employees an industry standard salary, or same health benefits,& retirement.
However, employees at low cost carriers tend to be more happy at their job. The legacy carriers have the advantage of more experience dealing with maintenance, or pilot training. The legacy carriers tend to pay better, but their employees are not as happy. But, how does this affect safety? Theres no clear data that point to one group being less safe then the other. I think its more important to look at the individual carriers safety record. Each group have unique challenges. For example, if a low cost carrier is having difficult fiscal problems it puts them on a lot of pressure to cut additional cost such as cutting corners. If you are a low cost carrier, theres only so much wriggle room involving cutting your cost. Some airlines get it right & maintain a good safety record such as Southwest. So you can't judge a book by its cover. The bottom line is you must do your homework when checking the safety record of an air carrier.   

 

http:www.flyinganxiety.com