The homepage on my Google Chrome is set to Yahoo which automatically routes it to Yahoo Singapore based on location. I browse through on a regular basis, watching out for news that catch my attention. Apart from the mystery of the missing MH370 which I'm no longer following, I read reports on several other aviation incidents in the span of less than 1 month. 1 plane was forced to make an emergency landing when its engine caught fire. Another was forced to turn back to the departing airport due to technical errors. Just in today, a Brazilian plane landed missing its front landing gear. When I searched for aviation accidents 2014, I turned up a list that were not reported in SG & we've just only completed our 1st quarter. I guess aviation incidents are more common than they've led us to believe. Sure, we're repeatedly told that we are more likely to die from a car accident but the keyword is fatality. Absence of fatality does not equate absence of accidents.
I used to watch Air Crash Investigation on cable. Discovery Channel if I didn't remember wrongly. It was a program that I'll faithfully watch. I was intrigued by the multiple factors that can lead to a disaster. I stopped watching when I cancelled my cable subscription. It never occurred to me to search for it on Youtube until recently. That explains why I've been missing from the internet for days in a row. Hubby thinks I'm morbid. Why watch something that generates even more fear than there already is? (He's very fearful of flying.) Well, he watches horror movies (by horror I meant ghosts) despite it triggering fear too. I don't for the same reasons he doesn't want to watch Air Crash Investigation. Granted, it's not the same thing but you get my drift. It's just something I'm wildly interested in, sort of like a hobby. An educational 1 albeit.
I've learnt that, you're more likely to survive a crash if you're seated at the back of the plane with a survival rate of 56%. In the middle of the plane, it goes down to 48% & by the time you get to the front of the plane, 42%. The odds aren't good to begin with, despite sitting in the back. Even if you survive the initial crash, you have to survive the fire (if any) & survive the escape to safe grounds.
Accidents are caused by a chain of events. If the mistakes were picked up at any of the stages, it would have broken the chain. But of course, unfortunately, they didn't. Pilot errors constitute more than 50% of all accidents, followed by mechanical fault at 20+%, weather & air traffic controllers at under 10%. When something goes wrong, pilots are the last line of defence. An experienced & well trained pilot is more likely to land the plane with minimal casualties. The program emphasises on paying attention during the safety video. I don't becoz they're similar. The only thing I do look out for the moment I'm seated is to look for the nearest exit & the location of the life vest under the seat in front of me.
Hubby has asked me if it's possible to travel by sea to Perth. I said, if a plane travelling at almost a thousand km per hour takes 5 hours to get there, then I'm sure we'll be on sea for a month. I did make him promise that he is under no circumstances allowed to travel by air without me. (He wanted to come back for a friend's wedding in November even if I'm not able to take leave.) He doesn't buckle his seat belt while cruising & we all know how important that is right? I whispered to him while watching Non Stop at the cinema last week, "See, that's why you have to keep the seat belt on all the time." when Liam Neeson was thrown into the air, slamming into the plane's roof & subsequently floor when the plane dipped. I don't know if we can increase our survival rates despite all these knowledge. Ultimately, I guess it all boils down to whether our time is up.
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