Fear of Flying (There's a Plane in the River Under My Window)

I hate flying. I do it anyway, but I hate it. I've done it a lot, out of necessity. I did it during my music business days, criss-crossing America and Europe on tour. I did it when I lived in Beirut and flew in and out of the war zone (out to escape the fighting, in when ceasefires took hold). I've flown from New York to Perth, halfway around the world (my wife is from there).

I joke that I come from a good anti-flying pedigree -- my aunt wrote Fear of Flying. Erica may have been referring to a different kind of flying, but the title aptly describes my family's attitude toward hurtling through the air in a sardine can at 500 MPH.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: there's a plane in the river under my window. I live in lower Manhattan and if I thought I'd escaped the craziness of Beirut, this neighborhood has proven to be equally prone to life's darkest surprises. September 11th, 2001 created the crater that I walk past everyday. Wall Street is a few blocks away, where for the past year shades of the Depression are back.

And this evening, a plane rests in the river near the beautiful, peaceful parks and walkways of Battery Park City.

Here are two photos I snapped earlier:

It is remarkable and wonderful that nobody died, thanks to the selflessness and professionalism of the pilots and crew and emergency workers.

Why do some people hate flying? My guess is because we don't want to watch death hurtling at us as we sit there, helpless. But of course that's exactly the position we're all in, flying or not.

Comments

[MinnesotaStPaulite]

Last Wednesday, at 22 degrees below zero, black ice on 35E South through Saint Paul and Eagan did not allow you to either push on the gas pedal, or touch the brake. I saw a car exiting ahead of me down an off-ramp, and it looked odd. It had just gone out of control and was sliding a few degrees out of kilter down the ramp. The slow slide must have taken 15 seconds, time enough for the driver’s life to pass in front of her eyes three times, before the car finally buried itself up to its windows in a snow bank.

Pick your sardine can.

[frantaylor]

When you consider the carnage on the highways, the sky looks very safe to me.

[leftinin]

I think "There's a plane in the river under my window" plus your photos was all that needed to be said...

[mmz]

I really like your posts.

[daveny]

Hey, do you live in Tribeca Park? Looks like either there or the building across the way, judging from the pics. You've probably met my mom... used to have a platinum blonde afghan hound she was always walking out there... Ah, if only she hadn't moved, I'd have a great view right now of the salvage!

[sarimn00]

I hate flying, too, especially over water. I am the only one in my entire family that will step onto a plane. Too much I want to see and do not to. But, I don't like it at all. I think it is a control thing with a lot of people, although not all. I have to rely on someone that I have never met to get me from one destination to another and put them control for that time period. Which is kinda absurd, because I do the same thing on a bus or train...ad­d that to my writer's imagination, and, well...

[ESerafina42]

That water thing bugs me, too. My first flight was to London and we were halfway over the Atlantic when the plane started tossing around in 120mph winds. That was enough to cure me - unfortunately, I had to come back.

Re your last point, I think the difference between a plane and a bus or train is that there is solid ground under you for the second two. In a plane, if you stop, gravity takes over and you hurtle thousands of feet downward. I'm sure the physics is sound as to why it stays up in the first place, but I never took physics.

[frantaylor]

You are far more likely to die from a collision with a train or a bus than from falling out of the sky on an airplane. The roads are packed with idiots in death machines while the skies are open and free.

[mjc]

Began to hate flying after Chertoff's solutions to terrorists on board American airplanes were instituted. In 1938 my brother and I flew as passengers in the mail plane from Baguio to Manilla in the Philippines, no seat belts, no seats. We went from the mountains to the plains with several updrafts that could put your hear in your mouth for sure. So can't say I am really afraid to fly. Think what this country ought to consider is cloning "Sully". Flying out of LaGuardia is a risky adventure in most cases but a good pilot would give me some confidence that that airport deserves to continue to exist.

[frantaylor]

It's getting in and out of LaGuardia that I hate. No public transportation, you HAVE to drive or take a cab. The traffic is monstrous all the time. I always tell people that Newark is the closest airport to NYC.

[isis]

I too hate flying through the air in a big can or even driving a big can down a highway surrounded by really big cans. You can be walking down the street or riding a bike and those cans could hit you. Then I remind myself that Marie Curie's husband was killed by being run over by a horse drawn cart. It helps a little.

[Tatiana]

Hate flying. That's why I'm doped on xanax every time.

[GayGrandpa]

Death the great blind date waits for us all or is it us who are waiting?

[Vandenbroek]

In a recently released audio tape from Osama bin Laden, the exiled terrorist praised a sleeper cell in the U.S. composed entirely of geese.

The audio tape was posted on the Internet yesterday. In it, the Islamic militant takes credit for falling a U.S. Airways jet. Flight 1549 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport when federal officials said it might have flown through a large flock of Canada geese.

"Al Qaeda has succeeded in recruiting fowl, renegade cows and common household cats in our jihad against the Satan America," bin Laden is translated as saying in his latest message. "The geese from Canada heroically gave their lives. We would also like to honour a cat in Utah for scratching a four-year old girl on the neck. Mrs. Pickles is a staunch supporter of the Palestinian people."

The outgoing Bush Administration took credit for outing the geese. "The President had received a memo in December that was titled 'Al Quacka About to Fly into a Jet Engine.' That's when we secretly initiated training among America's airline industry on how to deal with a 'bird strike'. The training paid off," said Paul A. Schneider, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

A 12-pound Cackling Goose, at a hastily called press conference near Blue Ball, PA, pleaded with Americans to not jump to conclusions. The bird asked for cool heads in light of this tragedy, "Honk. Honk, honk," he said.

[HelenofOz]

Now this is funny! Bravo.

[ESerafina42]

Good one!

[darker]

Al Qaeda has also succeeded in recruiting RENEGADE, ROGUE ELEPHANTS known as
The Republican Party to CRASH AMERICA while trumpeting their traitorously false patriotism.

On Jan. 20, the BUSH ELEPHANT-IN-CHIEF steps down to be replaced by a man with common-sense, intelligence, compassion and a sense of order. The unrehabilitated angry elephants are planning their next move in the WashDC jungle.

[anastomosis]

This example of mature cool skill needs the coining of a new word for the dictionary.

[rjmiller]

I'm terrified of flying, possibly because of the whole 10 miles above the ground in a big coke can thing. Every time I fly I have to keep telling myself that major airline pilots are some of the most highly trained professionals in the world, Air Force guys that used to fly 30 hour missions over war zones.

[IndyReader]

It's not the flying part that terrifies me, that's easy, it's the taking off and landing that leave me paralyzed with fear.

[Dukedraven]

I've never seen a picture of a commerical jet floating in the water. I didn't even know they can do that!