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Stefan Burlet

Professor Beadle

English 115

05 October 2017

Flight of Monsters

One of the most memorable episodes from the 1960s The Twilight Zone television show

was Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, where a thirty-seven-year-old Mr. Robert Wilson is convinced

he is seeing a gremlin on the wing of the plane he is aboard, but none of his fellow passengers or

crew believes him. Why was it so memorable? One reason might be because airplanes are so full

of monstrous thoughts and emotions, such as overdone media coverage, frightening turbulence,

and terrorist associations, that they reveal deep psychological fears and values humans place

upon understanding, safety, and control. Although we are almost sure that no gremlins are on the

wing of our flight, we do have monstrous fears and anxieties that make flying aboard in the space

of an airplane seem like a more dangerous task than it really is.

Flying is one of the safest methods of transportation. Media portrayals of airline disasters

are covered so in depth because of how rare they actually are. During an air disaster, the news

coverage is worldwide. The search for survivors and the following investigation are followed

closely by major news networks. NTSB flight experts are interviewed and analysts try to

determine the exact cause of the crash, and all of this is projected on national news. When you

compare car crash news coverage to air crash news coverage, it is easy to see that because car

crashes happen every day, they arent deemed newsworthy because that news doesnt sell. When

airplanes crash, they are covered in-depth because it is such a rare occurrence. This shows how a

monstrous theme surrounding airplane crashes occurs and is constantly perpetuated by overdone
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news coverage every time there is an airplane crash. And similarly to the Monsters reading of

Monsters and Messiahs by Mike Davis (Monsters 46), where Los Angeles residents feared the

Chupacabra as a fear of the unknown, passengers in the space of airplanes lack understanding

about the actual occurrence of air disasters and therefore fear air travel because they do not know

the numbers and statistics behind airline safety. Just as people who do not know the urban myths

behind the Chupacabra and as a result believe them to be true, people similarly do not know

about their chances of a successful or dangerous flight, and instantly let fear influence their

emotions.

Looking at the numbers, however, studies show surprising facts about how safe air travel

actually is. From research gathered at abcnews.com, "You're much more likely to die getting to

the airport than you are flying in the plane. Its quite surprising to some, but if you fly as a

passenger aboard an airplane, you stand an eleven million to one chance of death. Even if you

happen to be aboard a failing aircraft, you still have a survivability rate [that] is a high 95.7

percent (ABC News). So, if you make it to the airport, chance is on your side when you make it

off the ground. These misconceptions, most of which are common knowledge, show how even

though most flyers are aware that they are safe, they still have an immense fear and lack of

understanding about airplanes.

Another fear that is caused in this space is the loss of control that passengers have while

flying, especially during turbulence. After speaking directly with an airline captain, he stated that

passengers biggest fear is not having any control. Passengers have no basis to judge an airline

pilots skill or ability. For comparison, if a passenger was riding on a bus, that passenger could

easily determine the bus drivers ability because they drive a similar vehicle of their own. That

determination is much harder when done on an airplane because most passengers have no
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experience flying planes. Along with my own first-hand experience in turbulence, I can agree

that not having any control over the situation does make it more tense. This shows that the

monster of turbulence reveals how a nervous flyer fears the loss of control and values having it.

It is because control is so psychologically central to a persons survival, that if they lose control of

any situation an anxiety induced reaction will occur.

Adding to the monstrousness of this space is the actual monster of terrorism. The events

of September 11, 2001, have played such a major and fundamental shift in the way passengers

travel; and we are reminded every time we must go through extensive security. As the Homeland

Security Committee writes, there are increasing concerns that insider threats to aviation security

are on the rise (HSC 2). Similarly to how Chuck Klosterman equates the endless barrage of

working life to an endless horde of zombies, terrorism can be equated to what seems to be an

endless war with monsters that are trying to kill us. Thankfully, no terrorist plot aboard an

airborne plane has successfully been conducted since 9/11, but there still is a constant threat

every day. And societal divides add to the fear, causing Islamophobia and hatred. This shows

that the safety within this space is in danger and that the U.S. government and passengers are

concerned about air travel and value their own safety when flying, which is a connection to the

safety of the space of an airplane.

In closing, air travel feels like an extremely dangerous way of travel. Every time I have

voyaged aboard an airplane, the only thing I was able to think about was the way I was going to

die in a fireball explosion on the side of a mountain. But as it turns out, these monstrous fears are

actually nothing to be afraid of. Just as Mr. Robert Wilson grew fearful of something that was

not a real threat, passengers grow fearful due to their misconceptions of flying. Air travel is by

far one of the safest ways to get around, far safer than driving or even walking. All these
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monstrous fears of media portrayals, turbulence, and terrorism, reveal to us that we value having

control, safety, and understanding, but in reality, we have no monsters to be afraid of when we

go flying.
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Works Cited:

Davis, Mike. Monsters and Messiahs. The Washington Post, 11 May 1996.

Fields, Liz. What Are the Odds of Surviving a Plane Crash? ABC News, ABC News Network,

12 March 2014, abcnews.go.com/International/odds-surviving-plane-

crash/story?id=22886654.

Homeland Security Committee. Americas Airports: The Threat From Within. House

Homeland Security Committee Majority Staff Report. February 2017,

https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Americas-Airports-The-Threat-

From-Within.pdf

Klosterman, Chuck. My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead.

The New York Times, 03 December 2010.

Maass, Harold. The Odds Are 11 Million to 1 That You'll Die in a Plane Crash. The Week - All

You Need to Know about Everything That Matters, 8 July 2013,

theweek.com/articles/462449/odds-are-11-million-1-that-youll-die-plane-crash.