The world’s most experienced Boeing 747 pilot has a reassuring message for anyone who’s developed a fear of flying following a ‘bad year’ for crashes.
After three major commercial airliners have crashed in the past six months, it’s understandable that more people might be nervous to travel by plane.
In December, Jeju Air Flight 2216 skidded along the runway at Muan International Airport in South Korea and hit a concrete barrier following a bird strike, tragically killing 175 passengers.
Then, in January, the American Airlines Flight 5342 disaster saw the plane collide with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C, and there were no survivors.
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Most recently, the fatal Air India crash shocked the world just over one week ago on June 12, which killed all but one of the 242 people on board as it departed from Ahmedabad Airport in India.
It might sound terrifying, but experienced pilot Nick Eades explained to Tyla that while it’s technically been a ‘bad year’ for aviation, flying certainly ‘is not getting any more dangerous’.
Nick, from West Sussex, has had an incredible flying career that spanned across six decades with British Airways.
The expert has over 31,000 hours in the air under his belt, which equates to 3.5 years of his life being spent in a plane.
He has flown 15 and a half million miles, which is the same as flying to the moon seven times - as far as aviation experts go, Nick is most definitely your man.
So if he’s not worried, you shouldn’t be either.
Nick pointed out that it’s important to remember that January's disaster was the first commercial plane crash in the United States in over 15 years.
“There were no fatal crashes before this year for over 10 years in the States, not one fatal crash on a commercial airline,” he explained.
Speaking about the few accidents that have happened in the past six months, he explained: “Immediately, it looks like it's very unsafe here, but one crash in the year makes that year ‘unsafe’. Aviation certainly is not getting any more dangerous. In fact, it is getting safer all the time.”
Nick stressed that as far as commercial flight safety is concerned, ‘99.9999% of flying results in absolutely no harm to anybody’.
To put it into perspective, he shared some statistics that put most people at ease, one of which being that it’s the safest form of travel.
The pilot explained: “In fact, the most dangerous part of flying is driving to the airport and from the airport. The chances of dying in a plane crash is one in 11 million and that you're four times more likely to die from food poisoning.
“You’re five times more likely to fall off a ladder, and you’re actually 16 times more likely to die in the bath than you are in an airplane.”
He continued: “One of the best statistics is that you're more likely to be killed when you're in your house with an airplane crashing into it than on the plane.”
And if that hasn’t helped your fear, Nick told us that never once in his six decades of flying has he ever thought he was in immediate danger - he’s also never so much as put a scratch on a plane.
He has, however, delivered a baby onboard while he was co-piloting, but that’s a different story altogether.
Nick also shared why he thinks more people are afraid of air travel in this day and age - and it’s something most people wouldn’t have even considered a factor.
The pilot explained: “Thirty years ago if there was a major air crash, you read about it the next day or you see something on television. Today within 30 minutes of the crash in India there were literally videos of the aircraft flying and turning into a fireball.”
“It’s much more immediate,” he pointed out. “Social media has brought the news literally into your living room, into your office, so you can sit there almost in real time watching the accident happen.
"And in fact, it has happened in America where people were sending pictures back to their families as the crash happened.”
Nick clarified that ‘it’s not that it's more dangerous’, it’s actually less dangerous now as aircrafts ‘get more sophisticated’ but the crashes that do happen have ‘far more of an impact because people are watching on their phones, within minutes of it happening’.
He added: “Every air accident leads to safety in the future because we learn things from every single accident.”
So, if you were a little worried after the headlines in the past six months, hopefully this will have somewhat helped.
If you are really struggling with a phobia of flying, Nick suggests trying a ‘fear of flying’ course, which most of the major airlines offer.
Specifically designed to help you overcome the fear, they involve psychological tactics, explanations, and even mock flights to help you get to where you need to be.
Topics: Travel, Tyla Exclusive, Real Life, World News
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Madison Burgess