Why one shouldn’t watch Air Crash Investigations
So there I was, walking to the office and thinking – seriously thinking – whether to go to the Academy (the International Academy for Leadership of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation), at least for one last time. There’s this nifty seminar on new media at the end of the year – end of the year?! SNOOOOOWWWWW!!!!! – and, professionally and personally, I would REALLY love to go. Might be the last time I get to go to Europe in a loooonngggg while. Add to that a definite plus of possibly seeing Steph and I really feel like, yeah, why the heck not?
Of course, there were all these considerations: big event over at the “other” job at the end of the year (assuming, I’m still with the “other” job by then), it being the yuletide season, and my homesickness.
But, perhaps foremost among the things that keep me landbound is that fear of flying I so try my hardest to keep down.
Well, no. Its not exactly fear of flying. I mean, I do know the science – all of them, really – behind aeronautics. I know that you have a higher statistical possibility of being killed as you cross the street than dying of a plane crash. I know its the safest form of travel around (well, I still think boats are safer, since you can jump out of the side to water and sharks really aren’t that aggressive unless you’re bleeding).
It’s just that…
Anybody here watch National Geographic? They have this series called “Air Crash Investigation.” It makes you think. Because, at the end of most of the shows, the problems were about faulty or careless safety procedures. Human error. The people, be they ground crew and/or the flight crew, who, because they’re human, took a moment to be less disciplined about their work. Thus, hundreds of lives were lost.
It makes you scared. Because you also know that, even if statistics say otherwise, there’s also the fact that even the most statistically insignificant chance has a real possibility of happening overtime. It’s like with RF eh: there’s a 20% chance to crit? 20% only? But that means 1 of 5 strikes should go critical.
I’d rather have a terrorist on board. THAT I was trained to handle. Yes, even if the bastard has a grenade (Why be a martyr when you can make HIM the martyr? There’s no need to shield everyone with your body when you can use the terrorist’s to minimize the grenade blast. He said he’s ready to die, anyway).
And this morning, one of the very first news I see is about a mid-air collision in Europe. a plane and a helo. Eight people dead. When modern tech should have prevented something like that. You’d think that in a world of GPS tracking, pulse-Doppler radar, digital communications, and computer-assisted flight, something so simple as avoiding turning a helicopter and a plane becoming the latest example of the Pauli Exclusion Principle wouldn’t happen.
But it did.
And now…
Hm. I’ll probably get homesick anyway. And miss somebody. There’s no one like her anywhere in the world, anyway, except here in Manila (ah, my beautiful city… even Berlin just barely manages to equal you in my heart…). I’ve seen the Europeans and the South Americans and… no… she beats them, hands down.
Anyway.
Haha.
Whatever. I have several events to plan. I’ll think about the Academy later
