Let Logic Win Over Fear: Flying Is Really Safer Than Driving

Posting Date: 06/28/2000

We all know someone who is afraid of flying and one source of this fear is the gory and scary media coverage that occurs when a plane does crash.

It?s human nature to be frightened by these media images -- the description of the planes last minutes, the stories about the people who were on the plane. Logic has nothing to do with this fear, however, because the odds of being killed in a plane crash are extremely low.

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A University of Southern California researcher says only 13,000 people have died in nonmilitary plane crashes since commercial aviation began in 1914, but three times that many people die in car crashes every year.

Your lifetime chances of ever being in a plane crash are calculated at one in four million, compared to a one in three chance of being involved in a serious or fatal car crash, according to a report in the University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter.

In fact, experts believe that airline deregulation has probably saved lives, because it has made flying more affordable.

Regardless of these statistics, the general perception of most people is to feel safer in the driver?s seat of a car than in an airplane. I can understand this -- after all, in a car, you are in control and not someone you've never met. But if you?re taking a long trip, you might take a moment to remember that flying is really the safest way of reaching your destination.

Source: UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, June 2000