Five Ridiculous Myths about Air Travel

There’s something annoying about people believing all these air travel misconceptions, I mean people complain all the time about how dangerous driving a car is, but then they’ll be too afraid to get onto a plane! So, humans may have evolved to walk, but we have learnt to fly… Here are some myths that really need to die:

#5 Pilots Make Tons of Money

Pilots are well known to be up there with doctors and lawyers, except did you know that ticket prices have actually declined because pilots’ salaries have also declined 42% in the past three decades? Pilots make a lot less then you think they do.

You can cut a pilots pay to the point where they’re so overworked they push the wrong button due to sheer fatigue and crash into a building, but they’re still going to be lining up to fly – because they have to. It’s up to us to not be people who take advantage of some of the rare people in the world who have a real passion for something, like flying.

#4 Flight Attendants = Sky Waitresses/Waiters

Imagine if you had to deal with the public every day. Now imagine having to deal with the public every day after they've had a round of drinks. Now add in a soundtrack in the background of crying babies and people talking and laughing loudly. Now lastly, set this all in a small enclosed space. Imagine being a flight attendant, you’d have to smile the whole time and selflessly leap to the aid of everyone.

Becoming a flight attendant is tough enough in the first place, I mean, you have to pass several interviews, go through months of training and endless tests. Not to mention, if you are late once, you’re gone! Too many people look at the job and say, “oh, I could easily do that: it’s just waitressing.” This is why you should give them a sizeable tip and just be nice!

#3 Flying is Expensive

It really isn't, did you know that you can get tickets on discount airlines for a price that is almost too cheap? Did you know that if you stupidly arrive late for your miraculously cheap flight that you should only blame yourself.

Prices for airline tickets have really plummeted since 1980, because flying used to be expensive, much as it used to be something people didn't take for granted. There might be a correlation there, so if you find yourself thinking of flying as just another common travel option and one that should be cheaper, then odds are it already is.

#2 Disasters Have Simple Causes

You are not going to die, just because you get onto a plane. The only way that turbulence is going to bring down your airliner is if it’s the final straw in an improbable chain of events that your could live for literally 123,000 years and never see.

All you have to do is look at the serious incidents and see that there was a whole host of things that precluded the factors that lead to a full-on tragedy. Things like crew training, aircraft design and safety procedures all prevent your death.

#1 Flying is Less Safe than any Other Form of Travel

If you are afraid of flying, you might as well be afraid of pillows, marshmallows and flowers and other things that could technically kill you, but most certainly won’t. Statistically, motorbikes are exactly as dangerous as you think they are. And vans kill thousands, yet are twice as safe as cars. And very few people die on buses. All driving is safer than walking or biking. And cars… tens of thousands of people die every year in car accidents, and several thousand pedestrians with them. The only reason air travel seems so dangerous is because you hear about literally every single incident.

The more convenient a form of transport is the less safe it likely is. Did you know that, you are 65 times more likely to die in a car than in a plane? Oh, and while air crashes are never single-factor, being in a car accident is terrifyingly easy.

Do you know someone who has been in a plane crash? Odds are that you don’t. But, you probably know someone who has been in a car crash, or you were in a car crash. We are way too afraid of airplanes, and not even close to afraid enough of cars.

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