In Safe Hands

Cars are more than 19 times as dangerous as planes. Your chances of being in a plane accident are 1 in 7 million. If you were to board a plane every day, it would be 26,000 years before you got into trouble. A Boeing 727 with all its passengers would need to crash each day to match the number of deaths in cars today.

Planes can handle far more than you’d think

These statistics may not put you at ease. However, planes can withstand much more than what the average person thinks. Planes can land safely with only one engine and glide without engines for up to 30 minutes. They have enough fuel to select a variety of landing options and two, three, or even more autopilot systems.

There’s absolutely no need to worry about a routine flight. The average amount of turbulence on a plane is between 0.3g and 0.4g. This sounds terrifying until you learn that aeroplanes can handle 6 to 7 g, which is 20 times higher than the point at which people start complaining. For more information on Aircraft part suppliers, visit https://www.aerfin.com/beyond-fleet-services/beyond-engine/

The training behind every flight

The pilot is supported by three to four officers or co-pilots. They have a minimum 1,500 flight hours, 500 cross-country flight hours, 100 night flight hours, and 75 instrument operation hours. The ground staff are also well-trained, and air traffic controllers undergo three or four years of intensive training before they can direct the aircraft you sit on.

In the event that something goes wrong, you’ll be able to tell because all air traffic controllers and pilots must speak English by law since 2008. This is so there will not be any communication mistakes in an emergency. Your plane has likely received more attention than your automobile. The plane has undergone 12 hours of routine maintenance per hour of flight, and a major overhaul has been performed in the past four years that required 22,000 labour-hours.

Summary

Uses statistics to show that flying is far safer than driving, noting planes can land with only one engine or glide without power for up to 30 minutes, that normal turbulence is well within what aircraft are built to withstand, and that pilots, co-pilots and air traffic controllers all undergo extensive, strictly regulated training before being allowed to fly or direct a plane.

Questions this article raises

• How do these safety statistics compare across different types of aircraft?
• What exactly happens during a plane’s routine maintenance checks?
• How has pilot training changed since English became mandatory for air traffic control in 2008?