untitled plane crash post

What the hell makes a plane crash so scary?

Besides the obvious part where you die at the end.

I think about this sometimes when I'm strapped in before take-off because no matter what I think about on the flight there's always a little part of me that can't wait to kiss solid ground again. Despite what statistics says.

I never get into my car and feel that can't-wait-to-kiss-the-ground feeling. Despite the order of magnitude difference in potential for horrific death.

I used to think that it's a control thing.

When you're in a car you get some degree of control over your situation. If you realize something ain't right you generally have some agency to change that something yourself.

But in a wide-body double-decker Airbus A380 high above the sky? Yeah you're grubby mitts aren't on those controls unless you're hijacking the plane, in which case you probably aren't too scared of death not to mention crashing.

You just don't expect to die when you think you're in control. When death comes knocking I'd expect to feel better about it if I at least had the chance for death to humor me as I hazard an escape.

But there's something else about plane crashes.

As you step onto a plane you're life is completely normal, at least it's just another day of it. Even if you're anxious you don't actually believe you'll die. And you shouldn't.

But if this extremely improbable event occurs with you onboard...

As the plane goes down you are forced to reckon with the end. There is no time to contemplate. Going down

The majority of deaths one can imagine give you plenty of heads up or so little heads up you're gone before fear arrives.

I haven't died yet myself but I have to imagine that either one of those options is better than having just long enough to fully realize the horror of what is about to happen. No time to come to terms. Too much time to avoid the whole coming to terms process.

Imagine where you sit physically and in your life that you have just........

now

realized you have less than 60 seconds to live.

Yeah I guess that's why I'm still scared of airplanes.