Remember the first time you flew in an airplane and the crazy thoughts that zipped through your head? Will the door break open? Will the plane have to land on water? Will there be a hijacking? Well, most of us brushed away these negative thoughts trusting technology and the pilot. But the truth is far from what we believe it to be. Here are 12 disturbing facts that will make you think twice before flying:
1. Takeoff is a very dangerous time.
The fear of flying stems from the thought of the plane going down. Bu t the fact is that you are equally unsafe on the ground. Heavy fog and botched up radio signals have resulted in the worst airplane disasters. Mayday, mayday!
2. It’s a germ overload.
Agreed, airports and planes look spic-and-span, but the planes may not be as clean from the inside as you assume them to be. With more people than ever queuing up to fly, the in-flight staff might not really have the time to do a thorough cleansing of the cabin. Seats, safety belts, buttons… the germs are everywhere and are waiting to wriggle all over you. Gross!
My advice: Carry a lot of hand sanitiser.
3. Planes technically don’t need a pilot.
Yeah, you heard me right. With so much technology around, planes can literally fly to any place on earth. I guess airlines make sure that a human is at the helm of things so that flyers feel safe. We may trust a computer more when it comes to calculations but not when it comes to flying us to the southern hemisphere. Ironic!
4. It’s doom if that emergency door gets unlatched.
This will be a scene straight out of ‘Final Destination’. If that tiny door unlatches itself then you’d be sucked out. Well that’s only if you happen to be close to it. If you are far away, chances are that you’ll be turned into ice, courtesy the freezing air that will take over. In any case, the plane will break apart, so it really doesn’t matter!
5. The black box can be destroyed.
Contrary to popular belief, the small box is destructible if it comes under the heavy wings of the plane or is exposed to the extreme heat of the plane’s fuel. There’s still a slim chance that it would emerge intact. You’d be dead anyway!
6. There’s more risk of turbulence now than ever before.
Thanks to global warming, there’s an increase of carbon dioxide in the air. So the next time you keep your ignition burning for too long at the red light, remember you are contributing that much more to global warming. Which in turn is causing turbulence for someone up in the sky. So yeah, that!
7. Pilots don’t eat airline food.
Pilots are served special food on the plane while you are busy wondering why the toast is hard as rock. Reason? Airlines don’t want pilots to fall sick! Does that mean…? Dayum!
8. Oxygen masks won’t last for more than 15 minutes.
This is scary. Airlines claim that in 15 minutes, the pilot will bring the plane down to an altitude where you can breathe normally. They don’t tell you all that because they don’t want you to start shitting bricks.
9. Those earphones were plugged into somebody else’s ears.
Yuck! Sure, someone cleans the earphones and neatly tucks them back into the plastic cover but I wonder how much effort would someone put into cleaning earphones that are not supposed to go into his own ears.
10. The planes are not as new as you think.
According to ‘Airfare Watchdog’, an airline expert, the skies are full of old airplanes including the Boeing 717s and the primitive versions of the 757, 767 and 737. Before the production of 757 was brought to a halt, you could have been flying in the same plane that your grandfather flew in 20 years ago. Sounds a lil scary, eh?
11. The pilot is often exhausted.
According to a study, more than half of the pilots have fallen asleep in the cockpit. This is due to their extensive working hours and the toll the time zones take on them. I don’t even want to know what happens when both the pilot and the co-pilot are fast asleep at the controls.
12. You might be flying in a plane with the engine down.
Planes are designed to travel extensive periods of time on one engine. Well, pilots know exactly what information to give you and they’ll never tell you anything that’s bound to cause panic. You’ll know that something went horribly wrong only when you’re about to crash into a mountain.