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Behind the Scenes of Aviation Safety
 

Photo: Richard Cawood

MIND MAGAZINE | It was the early 1980s when the Boeing Company released a report by Robert D. Dean and Kerry M. Whitaker called “Fear of Flying, Impact on the U.S. Air Travel Industry.” It revealed that almost every third adult in America is either anxious or afraid to fly. While their excuses were varied, the most common thoughts passing through air passenger’s minds are possible in-flight mechanical failures; bad weather conditions, flying at night and over oceans.

To help passengers stay calm and think positively, most aviation professionals assure the public that flying is the safest way to go and statistics don’t lie. However, for an infrequent flyer, odds are not favourable. No matter what officials say, the general public needs more information touching safety issues.

Every day, four New York airports experience some of the most congested air traffic in the world. John F. Kennedy Int., Newark Int., La Guardia and Teterboro airports service nearly 3,000 flights on average every single day (two landings/take-offs per minute). It is a real challenge, not only for air traffic controllers, but for pilots as well. People may think that air traffic controllers do the entire job of guiding the jets. While this is true, the professional pilots we talked to said that it is flying into the busiest air corridor in the world, not landings and take-offs, which is considered to be one of most difficult procedure for them.

Controllers start slowing the airliners down about 200 miles away from the airport, so the number of planes in that radius is enormous. Most of the time, what really taxes a pilot’s nerves is listening to the rapid-speaking controllers issuing flight instructions (directions and altitude changes) to so many aircrafts. At times like these, pilots are ready for any type of scenario.
 

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Close calls occur only if a landed airplane is taking its time to exit the runway. When this happens, the plane behind it is ready to go around one more time. To ensure safety, pilots are trained to immediately break off the landing manoeuvre at any time, even if the airplane just seconds from touchdown. It is normally not a big problem, and pilots deal with it from time to time.

Here’ something freaky: some pilots enjoy the challenge of flying in such conditions! Says one of the pilots we conversed with, “the most exciting part of flying is landing out of a low approach in bad weather. We fly so often that it is not something new or scary. It’s just more of a challenge than normal operations when the weather is good.”

Another issue we went into was on-board oxygen masks and their real intention. As all flyers know, there are oxygen masks that fall from above each passenger in case of emergency. From a medical point of view, oxygen in its pure form will cause a person to go in trance, so he wouldn’t clearly understand what’s happening. Aviation oxygen is 99.9 per cent pure with a tolerance of 0.3 per cent PPM water. The masks are not intended for extended use (approximately 12 minutes). But believe it or not, even on its highest altitudes, pilots of a plane in trouble can get it down to 14,000 feet where the air is breathable (the air starts to get human friendly at 25,000 feet) in around four minutes.

When there is a problem on board, keeping passengers calm is extremely important not only to all crew members, but for the passengers’ safety as well. In situations like these, pure oxygen really helps out by keeping them “high.” To achieve this (for oxygen to be beneficial), there must be at least five litres blowing into the mask device. Otherwise, passengers will breathe back their own carbon dioxide and, if this occurs, there is a big chance that they will simply pass out.

Pilots, of course, are more secure. They have an emergency feature that forces oxygen into their lungs. So, no matter what trouble is under way, pilots will still fly the plane and will do everything to land it safely.

Nevertheless, the true effectiveness of emergency oxygen masks is questionable. As the expert in anatomy & physiology told us, “on an airliner that is in trouble, masks fall down, people are already hyperventilating -an increase in the rate of breathing- due to fear alone. How effective are the masks while you are hyperventilating? Again, you breathe in your own carbon dioxide, and oxygen isn’t really going to help.”

Aviation officials therefore remind you that when the flight attendant says “breathe normally”, she really means it. They also suggest never taking a deep breath and holding it while the airplane is in an emergency descent.

For all anxious passengers out there, we want you to stay aware that aviators have taken measures for you to get back on Earth safely. It may not be the perfect solution or 100 per cent guaranteed, but they need you to know that you’re always backed up. Remember that they want you to enjoy flying, and not be scared of it. We wish you a smooth landing.


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