Planes that fall from the sky

I'm terribly afraid of flying. So I read coverage of the airline industry, of their labor disputes, of industry cuts, of arguments between pilots and management regarding how much fuel to carry. I read about safety records, safety procedures, the statistics and comparisons provided to soothe us enough so that we won't think too much about being a mile above the earth in jet-propelled cans.

The most common reassurance: planes don't just fall out the sky.

The most repeated phrase over the past 3 months of crashes: and the plane just fell out of the sky.

Even though the crashes have occurred in take offs or landings (the most statistically likely time for a crash), media coverage has not relied so much on its decades-old sopophorics. Instead, they've repeated our underlying fear of falling, losing control. Planes are falling out of the sky. They just do, for no apparent reason, or for causes that exceed themselves, that are something extra, excessive, beyond the statistics and predictions and common expectations. Differently put, it's not the case that media are denying or hiding the statistics on flight safety in a kind of extreme 24/7 Fox News induced hysteria. Rather, they supply the information--and the line "and the plane just fell out of the sky," perhaps from a survivor or a witness, perhaps without attribution, an acknowledgement from the remnants of the big Other.

Why now? Because the sky is falling and no matter how many times they say it, we have a hard time grasping it, knowing how to go on in a different world. The line is repeated as a symptom of the larger crash, the crash that they can't explain, even with all their statistics and terms, the crash that we watched coming although no one expected it.

Comments

[Alison]

This is a great post.... Like you, I'm afraid of flying. In fact I find myself more afraid each time I fly, and as the years go by. I used to love flying when I was in my 20s, now I keep thinking that the more often I fly, the more likely it is that the plane will crash. So I have a crazy version of a theory of risk functioning when I think about flying.

In Australia, the main airline is Qantas, and it used to be known as the safest airline (see Rain Man!). Recently there have been various 'incidents' which have compromised that reputation, including a plane falling for quite a long way, then stabilising itself and managing to land (a friend's husband wa son board that one), because an O2 tank exploded and blew a hole in the side of the plane. Qantas has been reprimanded by the regulator here for outsourcing maintenance of planes to under-qualified engineers. Worse than that, they were recently found to have employed a guy who was masquerading as an engineer and who actually had no qualifications whatsoever. So this is what I think of when I get on board... And you're right: one kind of crash really is a excellent metaphor for another, except that of course a crash is never just a metaphor, and each type of crash (financial and aeronautical) is also an actual event with their own casualties, suffering and loss...

Thanks for another great post!

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The most common reassurance: planes don't just fall out the sky.

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The most repeated phrase over the past 3 months of crashes: and the plane just fell out of the sk