Lily Anne Peterson

Many passengers are anxious to be on flights due to recent accidents.

With summer coming up, many Benilde St. Margaret’s students are planning relaxing vacations. Unfortunately, due to recent fatal plane crashes, anxiety and fear regarding air travel have risen. This year, a plane in Washington, D.C, crashed only three miles from the White House. This commercial airplane struck a helicopter going above the designated altitude and killed all 67 passengers on board; this makes it the biggest crash based on fatality since the 9/11 attacks. Many smaller flights and private planes have crashed as well; however, these crashes have not received as much media coverage as the large crashes have.

Maddy Poppler, a sophomore at BSM, went on vacation for spring break and has anxieties about using air travel. “The more that it’s in the news, the more that people are going to be thinking about it, and the more that people think about it, the more it manifests,” Poppler said.

Though plane crashes have increased, airplanes have remained the safest form of transportation out there. This raises the question: Why are people more anxious to ride in a plane than a car? Due to the heavy publicity plane crashes have been receiving, people are beginning to think they are a bigger problem than they actually are in actuality. Maeve Steichen, a sophomore at BSM, took a plane for both spring break and Easter break. She is still anxious about flying/air travel, however, she has a different take on the situation. “People are putting such an emphasis on [big plane crashes]; there are so many more reports on these plane crashes, so it makes everyone so nervous. In reality, there have only been like three or four big planes that have crashed in the past years,” Steichen said.

Airplanes are at the height of their safety. It has never been safer to fly in the air as a form of transportation. So why do plane crashes occur? Some people might think that it is unexpected weather conditions or operational challenges, and these are good answers, but the number one answer is pilot error. As explained in an article by Wisner Baum, about 88% of all plane crashes are due to pilot error. This has always been the number one problem, and most miscalculations are derived from human mistakes. Poppler says that during stressful situations, such as experiencing heavy turbulence, listening to music helps her calm down. “I put on my music, and I calm myself down,” Poppler said.