Pilot error doesn't help when comfort zone is lacking

 This weekend at a high school reunion I found myself attempting to encourage an old friend who is a reluctant flyer. Patti said she would like to take a long flight to southern Europe but was uncomfortable with the idea of flying such a long duration. She noted that she didn’t even like to get to get up for a trip to the rest room while flying.

 While such a notion might sound silly to most who fly, it certainly strikes a familiar chord within my recent memory. I too was once a reluctant flyer. It was 25 years between the time I took my first airline flight — from Houston to Chicago en route to Navy boot camp — and the next one.

 The reason for that next flight in 1999, which was from Waco to St. Louis via Houston, was to spend a week with an old friend and former girlfriend. This friend had racked up the frequent flyer mileage in her work and she paid for my flight that way, so I figured I should “man up” and take the trip.

 A television show on one of the Discovery or History channel-type networks ended up largely helping me to eventually conquer my flight reluctance. The show went step-by-step through the investigation of a plane crash that killed a number of passengers and crew though not all. The fact that more and more people — in most instances that is — seem to survive airline crashes was encouraging although not completely convincing. But what gave me more comfort through understanding was that this accident studied on the TV show and most others crashes are eventually found to occur as a culmination of a set of interrelated circumstances that happened prior to the accident.

 Although no official report has yet been produced by NTSB, it is likely that this A-to-B-to-C-to-D cause and effect — in reverse if you’d like to think of it that way — had to happen for everything to go right so Capt. Sully Sullenberger could land his US Airways Flight 1549 safely into New York’s Hudson River.

 Since 9/11/01 and the following month in which an American Airlines Airbus A300 jumbo jet crashed in the Rockaway section of Queens, New York, the U.S. saw one of the lowest numbers of commercial air fatalities in recent years. No commercial carrier deaths were reported in 2007 and 2008.

 So both lower numbers of airline crashes both in the U.S. and worldwide remains positive news enough that it might convince my friend Patti to fly across the ocean. Of course, taking an Atavan sometime during the flight might do a world of good as well.

But then you have the inevitable fatal crash such as the Colgan Air commuter incident in Buffalo earlier this year. And just this week, a couple of pilots of a Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 who were said to be arguing over airline policy overshoot their destination by, only, 150 or so miles.

 Well, perhaps the crash in Buffalo that killed 50 people including one person in a house couldn’t be helped. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that it could be helped though. But the incident in which the pilots on the Northwest flight — perhaps both pilots bearing the name Bozo, but just speculating — thankfully didn’t hurt or kill anyone but it seems more and more likely that their error could have been prevented.

Such incidents not only give more ammunition to reluctant flyers but it also doesn’t instill confidence into the one-time reluctant flyers like myself or even the plain ol’ flyers.

 In wake of the “heated argument” excuse, there has also been speculation that the pilots of the “missed the exit” flight might have fallen asleep or perhaps had even been “UI.” You know,  “DUI” or “BUI” or “FUI?” However, The Wall Street Journal reported today that the pilots of that aircraft claim they had chatted with a flight attendant and then pulled out their laptop to discuss their work schedules.

 “Hey, we landed the damn thing. What more do you want?”

 The good news is that they didn’t overshoot the runway, they just overshot the airport. But one can hardly call that good news either.

 For all the Chesley Sullenbergers and all the other sharp and super-competent pilots and air crew out there remains some with both their heads in the clouds as well as up their asses.

 These guys got their plane, crew and passengers safely home. But their missing the airport the first time is a seriously bad reflection on the American commercial air industry. Hopefully the pilots of that Northwestern will have time to think about their transgressions during a long vacation.

 Oh and as for my conquering my reluctance to fly, it didn’t happen on the flight to St. Louis and it certainly didn’t take place on the way back. We flew back into Waco on a “puddle-jumper” on a windy spring day. As our wings bounced on approach we took a very quick drop that would put carnival rides to shame. The college girl sitting next to me might have wondered if my grip on the seat in front of her was going to break the headrest into.

 But I eventually became more comfortable with flying. Not totally — something as huge as airplanes flying still seem somewhat unnatural to me — but with enough comfort to sit back and look at how small the world looks below.