What's the scariest part of an airplane flight and why?

Question

Will tell y'all all my thoughts at the end ;)

Personally, I think the landing is the scariest part. For some reason it just seems the most unnatural. Take off seems ok, since you're shooting along the ground & the wing flaps are angled in order to get lift. Then the flight in mid-air itself seems ok apart from turbulance. But landing just seems to put the most stress on the plane (don't know much about planes tbh) as you're coming in at speed & pushing all the weight of the plane on the tires & landing gears from this speed. Somehow, landing in a larger plane (jumbo or airbus) appears smoother than a smaller 3 or 4 seat wide plane...

Like all your answers thou, especially those with experience working on passenger planes!

Answer 1

Sitting behind the guy that has a really bad hangover and keeps farting the entire flight.

Answer 2

Actually the scariest part of the flight is the take off. It's when the engines are under the most stress, they are not getting enough air because of the increased attack angle to get as much height as possible and it's the only time during a flight where I actually had to perform an emergency procedure although the engine did pickup and we didn't crash.
Landing can be a bit of hairy experience due to crosswinds and turbulence and occasionally windshear. To be honest though, it's take off where things go wrong the most.

Answer 3

The scariest part is the other pax who are paranoid the plane is going to crash. Listen to the radio from a large city on the way to work some morning and count the number of car accidents and the number of aircraft accidents. Yes, you get an occasional news/traffic chopper that goes down, but not often. I'd love to fly with the Alaska pilot anytime!

Answer 4

Nothing about a plane flight should be scary. statistically, flying is safer than trains, cars, buses, and any other form of transportation. The reason that people forget this is that plane crashes are so rare that when they DO happen, they recieve a tremendous amound of media coverage, whereas fatal car accidents are so common that they recieve very little if any media attention.

However, I can say from my experience that most people who are afraid of flying tell me that takeoff, landing, and encounters with turbulence are the most "scary" parts of flying, although none of the above situations are anything to be afraid of.

Answer 5

my dad is a pilot and still i am scared to death by landing

one time when we were going to india my mom tells me right when we are in the landing phase did you know an air france plane flipped on landing i got scared

the plane needs to go faster because its stall speed is higher with more weight

depends on how the pilot lands how much stress the plane is taking it has shock absorbers with the wheels

Answer 6

Usually I enjoy every bit of the flight. But this year for some reason I totally freaked out and cried all the way from Portugal. What scares me most on any flight is the thought that if I get airsick, i will throw up in front of 250+ strangers.

Answer 7

Hmmm... there are two for me. The first is going through turbulence that the pilot hasn't warned you about and you wonder if something is wrong with the engines...

The other is getting stuck on a full flight and sitting next to someone incessantly noisy, paranoid or quizzes you on myriad things. That's not to say I don't like to talk...but not excessively and not personal to someone I've never met.

::Smiles:: Pami

Answer 8

I'm ok flying, great altogether on the plane, but I just HATE everything to do with the airport. I'm a complete wreck until I'm going up the steps of the plane. And I don't know why.

Answer 9

The landing:-You HAVE to do it, somehow. Whether it's a good landing or a bad one, what goes up, must come down. You have limited fuel, so you're going to be down about when it runs out, or sooner. Ready or not!

Answer 10

When you perform a loop from too low a speed and you hang, about to tailslide, with reduced gravity, the engine quietens and you hear the wings creak and the fuselage groan as they suddenly gain negative airflow :-)

Answer 11

i find that its take off.

I LOVE flying and the whole experience but as the plane starts to rotate, I just get that gut rench of slight fear. The reason of that fear is because I watch to many Air Crash Investigation shows where most of the aircraft problems happpen just after take off.

but after 10 or so minutes im fine :D