How I Overcame The Fear Of Flying By Understanding How Ships Work
A true story about how my uncle, who was a chief engineer on a ship, made me understand why the fear of flying was a non-issue — at least for science.
Flight 6E — 487 shook mildly as the engines came to life. I could feel the electricity pulsating through the floors. The big hollow tube was now breathing.
And despite my efforts to stay calm; I was losing the battle of holding on to my nerves.
The plane was now being taxied to the runway. And the motion — the slow smooth floating movement on the tarmac — made by chest thump and I felt my ears go numb, like how it feels underwater.
Then, as the most common and perhaps the last sign of surrender, I grabbed onto my armrest which I shared with my uncle — a peppered haired, clean-shaven, spectacle bearing, soft-spoken mad genius — who worked a good part of his life as an engineer in the merchant navy.
He had sensed my clenched buttocks and noticed my increasingly indomitable need to get off the plane.
We were still parked on the runway awaiting instructions when he turned to me and said “Say did I tell about the time I was en route to New York and caught the worst storm in decades?”
“Huh? I... I don’t think so.. maybe, but I don’t remember” I was failing at both keeping cool and making coherent sentences.
“Well it was maybe 23 years ago when we were cruising somewhere in the Atlantic ocean” he started “ we had prior warning of an approaching tropical storm, so you know, we had batten down the hatches and braced for a rough ride”
He took his handkerchief and damped his lips before continuing “And it hit” he half raised his hands and stretched out his finger “it was a storm to remember. We saw a few bolted containers barely holding their ground and everything that was left loose flew around like inside a mixer grinder. It was rough.”
He was looking straight ahead and I could sense his brain replaying the moments frame by frame “I finished my schedule and went down to the lower levels where our barracks were and through a small window I could see our ship plunge underwater, our level would be completely submerged and we saw the deep black abyss and the vastness of what seemed like an unending ocean. But then just as it went underwater; our ship would bounce back up and float until another giant wave tried to swallow us whole.”
A moment of silence.
“Is that why you left the merchant navy?” I inquired. “Fear seems like a good ground to switch careers… No?”
“What? Oh, no-no” he chuckled “ I left because I missed my family too much. Also solid grounds to change careers, No?”
I believed him. I seconded him.
“I want to tell you that I wasn’t scared at all” he turned to me and smiled “I wasn’t scared when my ship went in and lept back out the water. Because I knew that it was impossible to sink us”
I looked at him with creases on my forehead “Impossible to sink?”. He continued “One-word son — Buoyancy. As long as there is air inside this ship and no one ignores the giant iceberg warning” he winked at his Titanic reference, “there’s no ocean that sinks us. The air enclosed inside the ship will keep us afloat. No matter what. And so I went to sleep. I mean I tried sleeping but couldn’t make much of it.”
He damped his lips with his handkerchief again “So remember like the ship has buoyancy, this plane has thrust and as long as there is thrust in this plane’s engine nothing is going to happen. Sure there will be a little turbulence and that’s quite okay. They are like bumps on the road. We will be alright. And even if we lose both these engines; the pilots can still glide us down to safety.” he said while making a gliding movement with his hands.
“Well, that’s a story. I will give you that.” I said and the announcement for seatbelts was made. I got my seat belts in place I asked “then why do accidents happen?”
“We don’t know why a plane might fall, but we do know what will keep it from falling. And we take every step scientifically possible to keep this machine running,” he said and looked at the hostess give instructions.
He turned to me again and said “Well if you don’t believe in science at least believe in capitalism — they value this jet more than you. so it is in their best interest to keep it flying!” he turned back to the hostess with a half-smile knowing full well that he had made his point and I had understood it.
The second half of the reason — the one about capitalism — really helped me calm down momentarily because I understood the capitalism reasoning better.
But the scientific fact grew on me too and I had a reasonably comfortable flight. I mean I was still holding my breath when we hit turbulence as if my not breathing would make a difference but I reassured myself that I have science and capitalism working together to get me to my destination.
