Dr. Brown believes that another way to ease angst about the perceived precariousness of air travel is to become familiar with the government's monitoring of safety standards. The U.S. government regulates domestic air travel far more rigorously than car travel. The Federal Aviation Administration monitors every aspect of airline safety, from mechanical inspections to pilot training to air traffic control to airport management.
Under FAA regulations, every commercial plane in the United States is subject to two preflight inspections before it can legally get off the ground. First, an in-service mechanic thoroughly scrutinizes both the exterior of the plane and the cockpit, cross-checking his own observations and findings against the information recorded in the aircraft's logbook, also required by the FAA. Each time an airline disaster introduces a safety glitch that goes unaddressed by the current guidelines, the FAA revises its standards and requires mechanics to look out for the problem in the future.
Before they are hired, airline mechanics undergo rigorous, FAA-approved training. Throughout their careers, they are subject to annual retraining and random drug tests.
Often, the preflight mechanic has few corrections to make, since planes and their engines are also subject to strict, routine maintenance overhauls. Also, the minute pilots or crew members detect a mechanical problem, they dispatch a report before the plane even lands. This way, if new parts are needed, mechanics can see to it that they're ready the minute a plane lands. If mechanics make a repair, they indicate that the aircraft is fixed and ready to fly by signing and recording an employee number in the plane's logbook. A supervisor then checks the repair and also signs the logbook with an employee number.
After the mechanic signs off on an aircraft, indicating that the plane has passed preflight inspection, the pilot and copilot conduct a second inspection of more than 100 items both inside and outside the plane. During the inspection process, baggage is unloaded; gas, food, and drinking water are replenished; and waste is expelled in preparation for the next flight.
It would be naive to assume that aircraft inspectors and mechanics adhere perfectly to every aspect of their job descriptions. Because one small goof can lead to catastrophe, however, the government levies strict fines against airline employees who get sloppy on the job. If a repair proves to be faulty, both the mechanic and the supervisor who signed off on the work are held responsible. Each may be fined as much as $5,000 out of pocket--with no help from the airline.
Bye-Bye Birdie--In the past, a significant hazard to flight safety was--believe it or not--birds. Planes could suffer serious engine damage if they happened to crash into a flock of birds or even a single bird, if it was large enough.
Now, however, engines are designed to ingest birds after a tangle, so they can continue functioning normally after the encounter. In fact, airplane mechanics test new engines by firing dead chickens into them. In order to pass FAA inspection regulations, an engine must be able to sustain the impact of an 8-pound bird.
How Flight Plans Are Prepared
Two hours before a scheduled departure, an airline's dispatchers, who are licensed by the FAA, prepare a flight plan. In light of weather conditions, temperature, and wind velocity, they evaluate the plane's route and determine optimal cruising altitude (typically 35,000 ft./10,500m) and speed (typically 500 mph/805kmph at cruising altitude). They determine how much fuel to load by weighing the fastest possible flight time with the most economical amount of fuel. Every commercial plane that leaves the ground carries enough fuel to transport the plane to its destination, surplus fuel for expected delays and reroutings, 1 or 2 hours' worth of "hold fuel" for unexpected delays, and a minimum of 45 minutes' worth of "reserve fuel," required by the FAA.
How Air Traffic Is Controlled
Once the dispatchers establish the flight plan, they run it by air traffic control. The plan is not official until the FAA's central computer in Washington approves it, and then it is filed electronically and available to every air traffic control tower responsible for a plane along its route.
From their glassed-in towers at the airport, controllers command the skies, monitoring both the sky above their own airport and landing conditions at the destination terminal. If they anticipate congestion when the plane is scheduled to land, controllers at the departure airport have the power to postpone the flight.
Via computerized video screens, each controller monitors a tier of the airspace around an airport. Throughout a flight--on average every 3 to 4 seconds--air traffic controllers maintain direct communication with a plane's pilot via headphones. Each plane appears as a blip as it travels over a variety of digital maps on screens.
The pilot first makes contact with a controller 15 minutes before takeoff. The plane is transferred from one controller to another as it moves from the gate to the runway to the air. Once the plane leaves a control tower's jurisdiction, it is transferred to controllers at other towers en route.
Air Traffic Violations--The next time you're about to complain about a $150 speeding ticket, be glad you're not a pilot. Commercial pilots have a steep incentive to listen to air controllers, the traffic cops of plane travel. Planes flying at an altitude below 10,000 feet (3,000m) are not allowed to exceed 281 miles per hour (452kmph). If a plane exceeds the speed limit, the captain can be fined $10,000. If a pilot deviates from the minimum distance allowed between planes, he may receive a fine of up to $10,000.
In both these instances, the pilots themselves are responsible for coming up with this cash; the airline doesn't bail them out.
Near Misses: So Close & Yet So Far--For commercial aircraft flying at altitudes under 29,000 feet (8,700m), air traffic controllers space planes 1,000 feet (300m) apart vertically and 3 to 20 miles (5-32km) apart horizontally. For commercial aircraft flying above 29,000 feet (8,700m), air traffic controllers space planes 2,000 feet (600m) apart vertically and 10 miles (16km) or more apart horizontally. Near misses are registered every time a plane deviates from this minimum space allowance. Certainly, from 10 to 20 miles (16-32km) away, you are in no danger of a midair collision, just because a flight was called a near miss.
In fact, only two midair collisions have occurred on commercial air carriers between 1990 and 2001, resulting in 506 fatalities. While any loss of life is too much, more people die each week in car accidents on U.S. highways than have died in midair collisions during the past decade.
How Pilots Are Trained
Every commercial U.S. airline flight has three pilots in the cockpit: a captain, a first officer, and a second officer. Pilots must have 2,000 hours of experience in the air and pass a rigorous series of tests before commercial airlines will consider hiring them.
Pilots usually receive their training from either a military service academy (such as the Air Force Academy), an undergraduate military ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corp) program, or a college or university program that focuses on airline technology. Pilots receive a variety of flying licenses en route to earning their commercial pilot's license.
Once hired, a pilot undergoes another battery of strenuous training; both written and oral testing; flight simulation; and at least 25 hours of flight time, supervised by the FAA, on the type of aircraft he will be flying. A pilot is retrained each time he switches aircraft. New pilots must demonstrate that they know how to perform every aspect of their job before they're allowed to fly. New hires also hold probationary status for 1 year and undergo monthly evaluations by fellow crew members. Captains, flight engineers, and first officers are retrained every year. If they cannot perform satisfactorily with each retraining, they are dismissed.
The FAA also appoints doctors who examine captains twice a year and first officers and flight engineers once a year. Pilots over 40 must receive an EKG. On each flight, the captain and first officer are served different meals, in the "off" chance that the airline food is bad and causes food poisoning. Pilots also undergo random drug testing throughout their careers, and no-notice checks at the hands of FAA officers and airline supervisors.
Do International Guidelines Exist?
International carriers are not subject to FAA safety requirements, but all nations' safety standards are rated by the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization. Fearful fliers may want to use solid northern European flag carriers such as Lufthansa and British Airways while traveling abroad--they're widely considered to be safer than U.S. airlines, in part because of their nations' past experiences with terrorism. For a detailed description of ICAO rules and a list of which foreign nations have inadequate safety standards, see chapter 1, "A Whole New World."
Know Your Meteorology: Weather Dangers Demystified
Fearful fliers tend to fret needlessly over weather patterns in the air that seem to herald danger. In fact, such occurrences pose little threat to air travelers. Some weather events certainly do make for hazardous flight conditions, but the FAA prohibits takeoff under these circumstances. Again, here Dr. Brown recommends educating yourself about some of the most commonly feared weather phenomena, and the actual threat they pose to air safety.
Turbulence
Turbulence, one of the scariest aspects of flight, happens to be relatively innocuous. The biggest threat posed by turbulence is injury inside the cabin if you happen to be standing or sitting without a seat belt when the plane encounters especially rough turbulence, which does jostle the plane. Turbulence is essentially streams of air in motion. Picture what happens when you insert a running hose into a pool of water: The hose water runs as a current, moving faster than the rest of the water and displacing it, sending the displaced water elsewhere. The air moves similarly. When a stream of cold wind, say, encounters warmer air, it runs right through it, cold air being more highly pressurized than warm air, and causes the warm air to rise and go elsewhere. These crashing streams of air are obstacles for airplanes, which manage to fly right through them, but not without some resistance. Air travelers experience this resistance as turbulence. Flying through turbulence is comparable to, and no more dangerous than, driving over gravel in a truck.
A common misnomer for severe turbulence is "air pockets." Air pockets are sort of like the Loch Ness monster of air travel--no more real and no more of a threat, despite their mythic proportions in the aviophobe's mind. The misleading term was coined during World War I by a journalist who was merely trying to describe turbulence. Contrary to popular myth, air pockets cannot cause planes to drop out of the sky or fall hundreds of feet. They are nothing more than a severe form of turbulence.
Turbulence is hard to predict, but it tends to occur near thunderstorms, over mountain ranges, and over very warm areas like Florida. The most dangerous type of turbulence is called clear-air turbulence. As its name suggests, it occurs unexpectedly in otherwise calm, clear skies. Clear-air turbulence poses a mild threat only because the plane will encounter it unexpectedly. If you happen to be walking about the cabin at that moment, you may fall or bang into something. If you're traveling on a smooth flight, and the pilot turns on the fasten seat belts sign, it is usually because he is expecting some clear-air turbulence. When this happens, follow the flight crew's instructions. You might want to stop drinking hot beverages until the light goes off. It's also wise to wait a minute if you were planning to use the restroom or pull belongings down from the overhead bin.
Flight attendants are actually at greatest risk when the plane encounters turbulence, since they move about the most during a flight. When a pilot asks the flight attendants to sit, it is usually not because the plane is in grave danger, but because the flight path is passing through choppy skies.
Pilots will often try to escape turbulence by ascending or descending to another altitude, where the air may be less agitated. This, too, does not mean the plane is endangered, but rather that the pilot is simply trying to give his passengers a smoother ride. Nor is he struggling to maintain control of the plane, another popular misperception of turbulence. In fact, many captains navigate rough skies on autopilot, which is better able to anticipate shifts in temperature and air pressure.
Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms do pose a danger to air travel. Flight plans are devised to help pilots avoid them, and the FAA prohibits planes from flying in the perilous core of a storm. Commercial aircraft must remain 20 miles (32km) away from this turbulent center of high winds, hail, and heavy rain. When a plane does enter a windy, rainy part of the sky, it must stay within the storm's outer reaches--where the biggest threat is turbulence. Most pilots try to avoid thunderstorms altogether, however, to provide their passengers with a smoother ride.
Even lightning, contrary to popular belief, cannot "strike" an airplane and electrocute passengers, because the plane is not grounded. Lightning hits planes almost every day and does no damage to the aircraft or to travelers, because it passes right through the plane. If lightning hits your plane, the worst you'll suffer is a ringing in your ears from the subsequent thunderclap.
Wind Shear
Wind shear is essentially a sudden change in wind speed or direction within a short distance. When it occurs, it usually accompanies a thunderstorm. The most severe form of wind shear is called a "microburst," which starts off as a strong head wind followed by a tail wind, torrential rain, and a fierce down draft that can literally run a plane into the ground if it is flying at low altitudes.
Although wind shear poses no threat at high altitudes, it can be dangerous to planes flying at lower levels. In the entire history of flight, however, only two planes have crashed because of it. Since the most recent incident, in 1994, pilots have been required to receive special training in flight simulators to detect wind shear and avoid it. After the initial training, pilots must take refresher courses every 6 months. Several newfangled wind-shear detection devices have also been invented since then. Most airports are equipped with mechanisms that measure wind speed and alert air-traffic control when wind shear is detected. Doppler radar is also able to detect wind shear in advance.
Fog
If fog happens to cloud the runway when a plane is scheduled to depart, air traffic control will delay the flight until visibility improves. Controllers don't always have the leisure, however, to postpone a plane's landing indefinitely. Because of this, planes are required to travel with enough fuel to allow them to postpone landing if visibility is poor.
Under certain conditions pilots are allowed to land, with help from electronics and computers, in even 0/0 visibility. The term "0/0 visibility" means that the plane has no ceiling--it's less than 300 feet (90m) above the ground--and the pilot can't see farther than 600 feet (180m) ahead. If the runway has an instrument called an "electronic glide slope," the pilot can use instruments to "see" ahead and land safely. Likewise, some planes are equipped with devices to make a safe 0/0 landing possible. Newer pilots, however, are sometimes prohibited from landing until visibility improves.
Ice
In freezing weather, airport runways are systematically inspected for ice and closed the minute ice is detected. Planes are also equipped with antilock and antiskid brakes as further protection against icy conditions.
The planes themselves are thoroughly de-iced almost immediately before a flight and coated with a substance that prevents ice from forming. Once a plane is airborne, ice cannot develop on jets, because the engine, which is naturally very hot, distributes hot air to areas of the plane that may develop ice.
Through Rain & Snow & Dark Of Night--When a ValuJet plane crashed in Florida in 1996, it became public knowledge that ValuJet pilots were paid by the flight. If inclement weather forced the airline to cancel a departure, the scheduled pilot would be out of luck.
ValuJet pilots, however, had enormous say over whether their flight would be grounded in poor weather. In practice, this meant that many ValuJet flights got off the ground under hazardous weather conditions that would have prompted any major carrier to cancel the flight without question, because pilots didn't want to lose money.
All airlines now pay pilots by the minute, according to Aviation Information Resources, a career-placement service for pilots. If a hailstorm forces an airline to delay a flight, the pilots make more money, not less.
