My flight was from ATL – LHR – Seoul – Manila. I flew British Airways from the US to UK, and Korean Air from the UK to the Far East. I wisely decided to purchase the book “Outliers” (highly recommend it) in the Airport to read on the plane ride on my way to the Philippines.
Now, recently, for some strange reason I’ve been more and more afraid of turbulence when I fly. I even did some research on turbulence to put my mind at ease. Here are some facts:
- I flew on an Airbus 300 or 380 or whatever. In my mind, it was the plane that crashed twice most recently.
- I sat right at the wing. Statistically, the seats at the very back of the plane have the highest survival rate. They also have the bumpiest ride.
- Turbulence is more severe when going north to South (due to trade winds) then when going east to West. I was going north to South.
- There’s a section in the book “Outliers” that chronicles how shitty the airline Korean Air was. They had so many crashes in the early 90s that the FAA advised Americans not to fly on their airline. Their crash rate was 14 times higher than other Airlines. Did I mention that I was flying Korean Air? There was yet another example in the book about a South American pilot and an Asian first officer. I shit you not; my Korean Air flight was piloted by a South American!
- I was jetlagged, and I couldn’t sleep.
Collectively, this sucked. I did make it though though… turns out that the end of the chapter in the book chronicled how Koran Air turned itself around and is perfectly fine to fly these days. I also remembered how my brother in law told me how each rivet on the wing of an airplane is stress tested and meticulously designed so that it can withstand forces far greater than it would see in the air. I also understood that most crashes are due to pilot error, not equipment failure. Lastly, I just came to terms with the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it. That’s all I have to say about air travel. That and the fact that airplane Asian Veg food is good.
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