I've never been afraid of flying. So even the story about the pilots being asleep as the plane came into land didn't bother me.Yes, you read that correctly. It's just emerged that a plane en route from Baltimore to Denver was getting frantic calls from air traffic control as it neared Denver Airport at twice the normal approach speed and well over the normal altitude.
They managed to arouse the pilot and co-pilot from their blissful slumber and the plane fortunately was landed safely.
The blame is put on long shifts and inadequate rest periods in-between. Plus the boredom of a routine flight.
Personally it only makes me more confident about flying when I hear that a plane can land okay despite snoozing pilots. Clearly the safety procedures are robust enough to allow for human errors like these.
In fact I'm far more nervous about hospitals than I am about planes. The death rate on scheduled flights is miniscule, while the death rate in hospitals from superbugs, blood clots, drug overdoses and surgical errors is alarmingly high.
As I've said before, the chances of coming out of hospital with an extra ailment you didn't have on arrival are pretty huge.
So if I get off a plane and someone tells me the pilots were fast asleep ten miles from the airport - no worries. I'll just head for baggage reclaim with the usual spring in my step.
