I live an hour north of San Francisco International Airport. We’ve been following the tragic 777 plane crash there in 2013 and are grateful only two lives were lost.
My brother flew the day after the crash and he commented, “for the first time in years, I read through the emergency evacuation card.”
It all felt closer to home after Saturday’s tragedy, and I’m sure many people are facing a fear of flying this week.
I understand. The fear of flying is a common phobia. I struggled with it for years.
I wasn’t helped by urban legends about devout folks who suddenly had a premonition the flight they were sitting on would go down. According to the stories, they managed to talk their way off the plane, including their luggage, and were amazed when the flight did, in fact, crash.
Those stories always bothered me and provided me with a particularly bad flight once from Los Angeles to Oakland when I became convinced I was on a doomed flight and didn’t have the nerve to talk my way off.
In my case, I couldn’t decide what I feared most: dying or making a scene.
As the plane roared over the Pacific Ocean on take-off, I fretted and worried and confessed every sin I could imagine–just in case we went down. After I exhausted my list of sins, I realized those on the plane with me were going to crash, too, and I should pray for them as well.
So I did.
All the way to Oakland, where we landed safely and without incident.
I’ve flown countless times since and never had a problem I know about.
Thanks be to God.
Still, my heart raced every time and each flight was an exercise in deep breathing and relaxation techniques, combined with confession, prayer and holding my breath on take off.
What does the Bible say?
But one day as I fretted about an upcoming flight, I remembered the words from Matthew 10:28-32:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. . . Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Similarly, Psalm 94 talks about God numbering our days, which I’ve always taken to mean God knows how long my life will be.
So, I reasoned, if God knows the day I’m going to die does it make any difference how I die?
I could just as easily be killed walking down the street as die in an airplane. Whatever day my life ends on will be determined by God. So, why be terrified of an airplane?
Indeed, statistics say I’m more likely to be killed in an auto accident than an airplane crash.
Frankly, the idea cheered me up considerably and while I still pray on take off, I’m not a wreck anymore about flying.
English: Aerial view of San Francisco International Airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I can trust the one who created to me to bring me home any way, and any day, he chooses. Click to Tweet
I’m just sorry the day was last Saturday for those two Chinese girls.
A 9-11 Flight
Some friends had reservations on the September 11, 2001 9 am Boston to California flight. They arrived in Boston a day early, however, and decided they were tired of traveling, and caught a flight home on September 10.
My eyes went wide when Al told me the story. “How do you live your life after being spared like that?” I asked.
“Very thankful to God,” he said.
No surprise. He’s not afraid of flying at all.
How do you deal with fear? Have you ever been afraid to fly or been in an airplane crash?
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My father was an air force pilot, so I got his genes, I guess. It has never crossed my mind to be afraid of flying. (Of course, we took family vacations in Cessnas, with Daddy at the “wheel.”) I had a trip (from Tennessee to California) long scheduled for September 17, 2001, and got on the plane without a backward glance but it was practically empty. I, too, am really sorry about those 2 little girls. 🙁 I suspect we’ll find that the cause of this crash was pilot error.
I flew on Halloween that year, carrying two bottles of wine in my carry-on. It was only later–after I watched a 4’9″ elderly Japanese woman practically be strip searched– that I realized I had far more serious weapons in my hand than a pair of nail clippers.
We were surprised to read Saturday’s crash was the first one since 2009 in the US. Obviously, someone is doing something right.
I’ve been a pilot since the age of 16. It was all I really wanted to do, and now I build airplanes (small ones, for people who want ‘something different’).
When I was 18, I was in an accident – I flew a small airplane through a set of 250,000 volt power lines. The thing kept flying, and I was able to get it back to the airport. I was pretty banged up, and when the windshield was shattered, part of it cut my throat. I was wearing prescription glasses, and they saved my life, for they protected me from being blinded. The force of the imploding windshield blew the headset I was wearing off my head, and into the baggage compartment, behind the rear seat.
The arc when the wires parted burned off my eyebrows, moustache, and a good part of my hair. The smell of burning made me think that the airplane itself was afire, and I thought I was going to die. I regretted that I would not see my dogs again, but I knew that somehow – I would pass through into the next life. I was a Buddhist at the time, but along with that regret of a lost temporal future came a calm and gentle support from without. I was in God’s hand, and in my anguish He let me know that He didn’t care what I believed, because He believed in me.
I haven’t been afraid of death since.
(As an aside – I was on the first flight out of Austin after 9/11. There were two gentlemen of Middle Eastern appearance on the airplane, and the flight attendants moved me and some other large, fit men, into the rows around them. The poor chaps knew exactly what was being done, and they were terrified. They didn’t move for the entire flight. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Certainly it was unfair, but it was also understandable.)
Oh my word, Andrew. So confronting death–in what to me would have been a terrifying situation–caused you not to fear death? I admire that.
And I get it about the post-9-11 flights. I was the last person on a Southwest LA-Oakland flight several months later and ahead of me, two young men wearing the red and white checked headdresses, were pulled out of line for further scrutiny. They shouted and swore as they were lead away.
When it was my turn, I asked, “should I volunteer to be searched, too, if only to make them feel better?’
The attendant shook her head and laughed at me. “It doesn’t work that way.”
The last time I was on a plane was in 1996 to San Jose. Now that I see the picture of the alternative airport, I think I’d do San Jose again. Since I have not been on many flights, I am still in awe of that method of travel. I have never been on a really bumpy flight so I do not know how that would affect me. I don’t like the feeling of my stomach being in my throat that roller coasters give me, so if that is part of it then I might have a fear of that yucky feeling. Otherwise, I have enjoyed the few flights I have been on. I found takeoff to be exciting and also the landing as I watched the sites on the land get bigger and bigger. I am truly amazed that God lets people travel in the air faster than birds!
This is great Michelle….and yes, when my mom and Al told me about changing their flight, I think my face went white as a ghost. God DOES know the number of your days….And thank God I still have my mom and Al! May I share this?
Of course!