The Calm Guide

Fear of flying is one of the most common fears in the world. And yet, when you look at the facts, flying is one of the safest things you will ever do. So why does it feel so frightening?

Air is a fluid. It moves, it rises, it sinks and it swirls, exactly like water in a river. Turbulence is simply the aircraft travelling through air that is moving.

For many nervous passengers it isn't turbulence at all. It's the noises. The thump. The whirr. The clunk. Every one of them has a name, and none of them is a surprise to us.

You may never see us. But there are two highly trained pilots up front, and behind them an entire system of people whose only job is to make your flight uneventful.

Modern airliners are built on one simple principle: never depend on a single thing. Almost everything important exists two or three times over.

Facts rarely dissolve fear on their own. But they give the calmer part of your mind something solid to hold while the anxious part settles.

While you're at the gate, an aircraft doesn't simply wait. It is being walked around, read, tested, fuelled, loaded, signed for and cross-checked. Nothing moves until every item on that list is complete.

The parts of the aircraft that look most alarming from a window seat are usually the ones that have been tested hardest. Here's what you're actually sitting in.