Flying - are you sitting comfortably? What can you do?

A door wedge.
Photo by Angela Lansbury, copyright march 30 2016.

When you get on a plane how many things can go wrong?

1 Plane malfunctions, loses landing gear, overshoots runway, lands in river
2 Bad weather, plane hit by turbulence
3 Terrorists
4 Plane loses your luggage
5 Drunken or disorderly passengers and/or passengers are accused of starting fights
6 Animals: animals on runway; birds hit plane mid-air; passengers bring pets
7 Two planes try to use the same runway
8 Drunk pilot or co-pilot arrested, or worse, still, not arrested
9 Suicidal pilot, crashes plane or, merely incompetent, lands plane at wrong airport
10 Passenger opens exit door

Today I read about a drunken pilot being arrested, a passenger banned from flying for life on BA (plane from Heathrow to Dubai) and a Chinese woman on her first flight opening the emergency evacuation chute when looking or the toilet.

As the joke goes, the cabin crew wish you a 'pleasant fright'. They really do.

I suppose the worst case scenario is that everybody dies on board, at least one pair travelling with somebody else's spouse.

Second to worst case scenario, several of you survive. Although some of the survivors die, a small number of you save yourselves by resorting to cannibalism.

Third worse case, you are the sole survivor but consider yourself blessed to be a survivor and despite multiple injuries keep cheerful until, several days later, help arrives. This last story was told to us as an example of optimism and right attitude, whatever the circumstances, by a member of toastmasters at a speakers club meeting.

Compared to all these scenarios, most days, at home or on holiday, are blissfully happy.

Just in case you thought I had invented all these incidents, here are some examples:

1
Plane hit by geese lands in river:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/miracle-landing-on-the-hudson/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mLKfRVU3qM

2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/12075576/21-people-injured-as-turbulence-hits-Air-Canada-plane.html
http://fearofflyingschool.com/airplane-turbulence
Cure for fear of flying - claims no plane has been downed by turbulence.

3
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3431295/Islamist-terror-group-Al-Shabaab-named-prime-suspects-bomb-blast-tore-hole-Somali-plane-sucked-passenger-death.html

4 An American couple flew to England to a Murder Weekend, one of the first, and their fancy dress for the Saturday night party was in their lost luggage, which turned up after the party.
A plane lost our skis (three of us), luckily on the way home from New Zealand to London, about 1989. We were flying on Air New Zealand. They upgraded us to first class on the second leg (we had starting at Christchurch); the skis should have gone to Auckland but they went to Nelson; we were on our way to Singapore and then via Singapore airlines to the UK. Our skis caught up with us in London a day or two after we reached home.

5
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/british-airways-passenger-handcuffed-and-strapped-to-seat-after-bizarre-row-on-board-plane-a3212216.html

6
http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2009a/090504RhodesAirport.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stray_animals_at_Indian_airports

7
Tenerife air disaster:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster
two planes almost crash on same runway, You tube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZAHsk3MiSg

8
http://time.com/4273028/american-airlines-pilot-arrested-suspected-intoxication/

9
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pilots-head-wrong-airports-article-1.1608410
150 pilots landed at wrong airports.
(We once landed at Birmingham because of bad weather at Heathrow. The pilot made a coulee of attempts at landing and then decided enough was enough so we diverted at the last minute. The hire car driver waiting for us was not pleased.

10
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3511283/China-Southern-Airlines-passenger-opens-emergency-exit.html#comments

What can you do?
1 Keep food in your pocket in case of a plane delay or crash.
2 Sit near an exit.
3 Keep a door wedge to deter or delay intruders,

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.