No doubt you saw the headline: Aircraft Door Plug Blows Out At 16,000 Feet! Fortunately, the pilots were able to safely navigate the disabled plane back to the airport, and everyone survived the ordeal. The door plug has been recovered; so were several cell phones belonging to passengers. In time, we will find out how this happened, and why.
As for now, will knowing what happened affect where you will be willing to sit on an airplane?
As for now, will knowing what happened affect where you will be willing to sit on an airplane?
*****
The process of hazard recognition occurs in the five and a half inch space between our ears. So does the equally important matter of deciding what to do once a hazard has been perceived. Because we’re human, this process operates both logically – and emotionally.
Looked at objectively, this event was a statistical anomaly. It was a new plane, and a failure such as this is almost unprecedented. You can expect to hear all about that in the investigation report.
Moreover, no one was injured. The aircraft is designed to keep flying despite a total loss of cabin pressure. Statistically, there are so many more hazards deserving of serious attention, all of which can be found at ground level, while moving at slow speed.
It may make perfect sense, but that is not how our brains work.
Picturing a catastrophic event such as this one, with consequences that would be graphic – picture being sucked out of an airplane, like those cell phones – that is completely beyond our control, we can’t help but be affected. Those are the conditions that cause people to fear a hazard and a healthy degree of fear affects behavior.
If nothing else, the next time you’re sitting next to the emergency exit, you’ll probably keep your seat belt buckled the entire flight.
That would be a perfectly normal reaction to an event like this. Even though flying on a commercial airline is by far the safest way to travel.
But the next time you’re in the car, behind the steering wheel and driving, you would do even better to make sure your seat belt is buckled, and you stay off the phone. That is a combination of hazards we should fear more.
Looked at objectively, this event was a statistical anomaly. It was a new plane, and a failure such as this is almost unprecedented. You can expect to hear all about that in the investigation report.
Moreover, no one was injured. The aircraft is designed to keep flying despite a total loss of cabin pressure. Statistically, there are so many more hazards deserving of serious attention, all of which can be found at ground level, while moving at slow speed.
It may make perfect sense, but that is not how our brains work.
Picturing a catastrophic event such as this one, with consequences that would be graphic – picture being sucked out of an airplane, like those cell phones – that is completely beyond our control, we can’t help but be affected. Those are the conditions that cause people to fear a hazard and a healthy degree of fear affects behavior.
If nothing else, the next time you’re sitting next to the emergency exit, you’ll probably keep your seat belt buckled the entire flight.
That would be a perfectly normal reaction to an event like this. Even though flying on a commercial airline is by far the safest way to travel.
But the next time you’re in the car, behind the steering wheel and driving, you would do even better to make sure your seat belt is buckled, and you stay off the phone. That is a combination of hazards we should fear more.
Paul Balmert
January 2024
January 2024
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