Two more aviation near-misses occurred this week

An American Airlines flight was forced to abort its landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to avoid a plane taking off on the same runway. The mishap unfolded on February 24, less than a month after a mid-air collision near the same airport killed sixty-seven people.

That same day, a Southwest Airlines plane had a close call with a private jet that entered a runway without authorization at Chicago Midway International Airport. The SWA crew had to perform a go-around to prevent a potential collision. 

This after a medevac jet crashed in Philadelphia last month, killing seven people and injuring at least nineteen. And a regional jet crashed off the coast of western Alaska, killing ten people.

Does it seem that airline accidents are more frequent these days? Actually, they’re not.

What is the most dangerous mode of transportation?

The National Transportation Safety Board has recorded more than 1,100 aviation accidents and incidents each year for the last decade. However, they very seldom involve commercial aircraft, which explains why recent accidents have made the news due to their rarity. Compare this number with the more than 45,000 flights the FAA handles every day.

There was an average of thirty-three serious injuries in US air travel from 2002 to 2022. In that same time, approximately 2.3 million people were hurt each year on US highways. In 2022, passengers in cars and trucks were injured at a rate of 42 per 100 million miles traveled. For air travel, the ratio was 0.007 per 100 million miles.

Motorcycles are actually six times more dangerous than buses, which are more dangerous than cars and trucks, which are exponentially more dangerous than airplanes. But motorcycle accidents seldom make the news unless they involve a celebrity.

Why, then, do airline accidents and near-misses always seem to generate headlines?

How hard is it to become a commercial pilot?

I suspect that the answer has something to do with our instinctive need for control and the lack thereof.

When I’m driving my truck, I feel in control and able to protect myself from accidents and death. I understand the basics of how the vehicle operates and consider myself competent to handle it. 

When I ride in an airplane, none of this is true. My life is completely in the hands of pilots and mechanics I have never met. I know virtually nothing about how a jet operates. If I’m too heavy to fly, why isn’t it? (I actually know the answer, but logic doesn’t seem to help in the face of gravity.)

This is one reason people who are especially afraid of flying are urged to take classes that explain flight mechanics, turbulence, weather, and the physics of airplanes. Learning all of that won’t make them safer on their next flight, but it will help with the sense of ignorance-based impotence they may be feeling.

However, my sense of control when driving vs. flying is much more fiction than fact. 

When I drive, my life is in the hands of every other driver on the highway. My truck could have mechanical problems I don’t know anything about. Unexpected weather could threaten my safety and even my life. And I am by no means a professional driver. I only know what a high school drivers ed class and years of experience have taught me.

By contrast, my airplane is piloted by professional pilots who spent many years learning their craft. (Just look over the requirements if you wonder how hard it is to qualify for their job.) The aircraft is maintained by professional mechanics whose training is likewise rigorous.

If I’m looking for control when I travel, I should not travel. The laws of gravity and physics are undefeated. But if I’m trying to minimize risks when I travel, I should fly, hands down.

But still . . .

I am “altitudinally challenged”

Imagine yourself in a car or truck in the midst of an accident. Now imagine yourself on an airplane as it crashes to the ground. Which terrifies you more?

The fact is, few of us are actually afraid of flying. But all of us are afraid of crashing.

In addition, I am “altitudinally challenged.” I don’t like heights and never have. When I have to be on top floors of office buildings or hotels, I stay away from the windows. When I fly, I try to get an aisle seat, read the entire time, and pretend I’m still on the ground.

So, here’s what my innate fear of crashing and my dislike of heights have taught me: I am finite and fallen. I have no say over whether I will live another day (or hour). I cannot make the sun rise tomorrow or set tonight. I cannot earn or produce my next breath.

It’s just that our technologically sophisticated culture masks all of this for us most of the time. Unlike our ancestors who lived on farms, braving elements and predators every day, we can go for days and even years without feeling truly threatened. But put me on an airplane, and my illusion of immortality vanishes.

This is a good thing.

As I often say, self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. Satan loves to use the illusion of control to lead us into the self-dependence that constricts and restricts the Spirit. Because God honors the free will he has given us, he must knock at the door of our hearts (Revelation 3:20) and can lead only those who will follow.

A regular dose of humility is therefore necessary for our souls.

“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”

I don’t know when I will next fly on an airplane. You, on the other hand, might be flying later today. But we can both take Jesus’ advice to heart: “You ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:15).

This is not a small matter. If we will not submit our lives and safety to God’s providence, choosing to trust ourselves over our Father, James warned us, “You boast in your arrogance” and added, “All such boasting is evil” (v. 16).

So, identify and reject the self-reliance that our secularized culture so endorses and rewards. Let’s begin every day by surrendering it to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), asking God to make more of us than we can possibly make of ourselves.

In terms of today’s article, let’s pretend that we’re flying on an airplane every moment of our lives, depending entirely on the pilot to bring us to our destination.

Because we are.