Miracle in the Hudson

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my fear of flying. And as well as making every single flight into what I would call an abject misery, this phobia has other symptoms. I am morbidly fascinated by air disasters, and have wasted many a terrifying hour on airsafe.com. It isn't a healthy thing to do; it is the mental equivalent of scab picking. But somehow, air disasters mesmerise me.

Furthermore, I scour news reports of air crashes, looking at the photos like one of those godawful gawpers at the scene of a road accident. I study the photos, looking for the causes of the crash - something I am neither professionally qualified not emotionally capable of doing effectively. I want to know what caused the crash, and how it could have been avoided. And I know any sort of knowledge is not going to help me; in fact I know that it will just make things worse as I will know exactly what could go wrong.

Except... except sometimes reports of air crashes can be amazingly comforting for me. Take yesterday's events in NYC - a plane goes down with over a hundred people on board, yet they all walk away*. This is wonderful - obviously for those concerned, but also to those who are afraid of flying. Because, as this great essay makes perfectly clear, it isn't a fear of flying. It is a fear of dying. In a plane crash. Of burning to death in a sealed coffin of raging flames, melting plastic and redhot mettle. It is being smashed into a thousand pieces as the plane hits the ground. It is... actually, I'll stop there. That talk just isn't helping.

Because whilst some talk of this being a miracle, it really wasn't. A combination of factors meant that disaster was averted. The actions of the pilot, the quick response of the emergency services, the fact that the aircraft was designed to float - that saved the lives yesterday. Not a miracle, but procedures, training and design all working together to save lives when birds take out aircraft engines**.

On balance, if something goes wrong with your aircraft whilst it is in the air, then you're fucked. However, stories like this change that balance slightly. Yes, you're probably fucked. But engineers have considered that your plane might need to float, the pilot is highly trained and will do what he can to deal with the issue and the emergency services will be with you ASAP. It is a small comfort, sure; but where flying is concerned, I'll take all the comfort I can find.

*Re-reading the article, I see someone had two broken legs. In fairness, they probably didn't walk away from the air crash.
**Bloody birds. Never trusted 'em. Hitchcock was right.