Airline Safety and Flight Safety Facts

Flying is the Safest Way to Travel on the Planet.

Oh yeah, you're saying. What about takeoff??

We sure hear that question a lot! Many people hate takeoffs. And for good reason! How can something like a big huge airliner get up enough energy to make it off the ground?

Fortunately bright and innovative people starting with Orville and Wilbur figured it out. In fact, EVERY part of flying is carefully planned and monitored to guarantee your safety.

Achieving Safety Means Careful Planning

A lot of preparation and planning goes into every commercial flight. Careful measurements and calculations are made. The pilots perform their checks and crosschecks.

From the time we pushback at the gate, we know that the airplane will not only fly safely but even has the capability to experience complete loss of thrust on one engine and at that point either stop safely on the remaining runway, or continue to takeoff if there's no longer room to stop. If that ever happened, of course, we would immediately turn around and land at our departure airport rather than continue on our trip. An airplane can safely fly on one engine. We just don't want to fly very far with one engine.

Safety by the Numbers

This is a good time to "take a count" of the other equipment on an aircraft. Flying is so safe because of the duplication of effort that is built into the aircraft to ensure safety. It's not like driving in your car. There are at least two engines, two pilots, and two systems of each kind so that if one fails, a backup exists. In fact, many systems have more than one backup.

If you're looking for a lot more information about how safe airplanes are, check out Captain Ron's Cleared 4 Takeoff seminar.

What You Can Do to Ensure Your Safety

As pilots, we'll do everything we can to ensure both your safety and ours. As passengers, you can do your part to be safe. Follow these five tips to keep yourself safe.

1. Pay attention to the safety briefing that many people tune out at the beginning of every flight.

2. Stay seated with your seat belt fastened when you're not up using the restroom.

3. Stay buckled in when the seatbelt sign is on. The pilot turned it on for a reason--to keep you safe.

4. Explore the "stories" you tell yourself about flying. Replace those myths you have with the "plane" facts about flying and why it is so safe. Flying may seem mysterious to you, but airplanes take off, cruise above the clouds, and land safely because of years and years of industry experience, traditions, and layers upon layers of regulation and monitoring. Once you understand some of these aspects about flying, it is likely to seem less scary. You can explore stories of former fearful flyers with your copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul Presents the Fearless FlightKit.

Learn the "Plane" Truth about Flying with Captain Ron's Cleared 4 Takeoff seminar

5. Finally, check out our online Seminar if you need help replacing those stories you've been telling yourself about flying. In this interesting and informative class, we clear up some of the myths you may have about flying and replace them with "plane" facts. Did you know that from 2000-2005, the odds of being killed in a U.S. plane crash were 1 in 22.8 million? Did you also know that these statistics represent a 60-percent improvement from the ten-year period of 1990-1999? It's getting safer and safer to fly! Find out more in Captain Ron's Cleared 4 Takeoff seminar