We don’t know the outcome of the flight in advance. Anticipatory anxiety depends, in part, on what we expect based on past experience. If we haven’t flown a lot, that can leave us unsure.
On the other hand, you’ve driven your car hundreds if not thousands of times. You have gotten good results; when you get in your car that’s what you expect.
Every time you drive 5.4 urban miles, that is equal in risk of fatality to a trip from New York to Tokyo.
Think how many times you have driving 5.4 miles. That’s how many flights you could have taken with the same risk. Driving worked out OK. So why not flying?
Based on experience with driving, you expect good results. Based on experience flying, pilots expect good results. Pilots fly day in and day out. Year in and year old. And nothing happens. It’s boring. Our friends who are pilots fly day in and day out, year in and year out, and nothing happens to them either. I flew for Pan Am and United for thirty years. I know literally hundreds of pilots and hundreds of flight attendants, and I know no one who every got even scratched in an accident.
So naturally, when I get on an airliner, I expect good results. Just like you do whenever you get in your car to drive 5.4 miles. It’s all the same.
