What if my flight happens to be that 0.000...1%?

28 million flights a year take place without accidents, but anxiety says: mine will be the exception. We analyze where this feeling comes from.

Every two seconds, about five planes take off at tens of thousands of airports around the world. There are 28 million accident-free flights per year. And yet, a fearful flyer has an internal feeling that their flight specifically might turn out to be the exception.

That one could be anything

Let us reflect. After all, that one could be anything: that one entrance where a brick falls from above; that one meatball at lunch that you could choke on; that one taxi driver who did not get enough sleep and is driving you to the airport.

If we lived by the categories of - what if this is the one day, the one hour, the one car - we would simply have to lock ourselves at home and stop going outside. However, in everyday life, we do not reason this way. Why then do such thoughts arise specifically about airplanes?

Lessons learned by the psyche

Imagine: you went for a walk with friends, everyone was told to be home by 21:00. You were late and returned at 21:15. The parents of the other friends gave them a warning and forgot about it. But you, when you returned, were punished and humiliated. The psyche draws an obvious conclusion: if someone is going to get it, it will be me.

When we grow up and board a plane, we subconsciously tell ourselves: - Yes, 28 million flights a year are accident-free. But if something happens, it will happen specifically to me. - Because once upon a time, the only one who got the full blow was also me.

This is called emotional knowledge. And it is this, not logic, that is responsible for activating fear and panic. We may know the statistics and understand that airplanes are safe, but feel otherwise.