One of the reasons many people choose to avoid flying is fear of flying.
There are many reasons to be afraid of flying, but also quite a few ways to deal with them.
One of the reasons that cause quite a few passengers to be afraid during the flight are the air pockets, or as the pilots usually call them - "hathotim".
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Air pockets look scary and there is no doubt that strong airbags can cause very unpleasant sensations during the flight, but one official figure indicates their very low danger, if at all - the last time a plane crashed due to an airbag was in 1966.
Airplanes are often built in such a way that they can handle much more significant force than the strongest air pockets.
In tests carried out on passenger planes, they were able to flex the wings to very sharp angles, such that they almost made the wings touch each other.
Don't worry!
The pilots are skilled enough (illustration),
In most cases pilots know what the forecast weather is, so they can avoid entering areas with significant air pockets, go around them and thus continue a more relaxed flight.
Even in situations where pilots get into air pockets, whether they knew about them or not, the data speaks for itself - 57 years that a plane has not crashed due to an air bag.
Ariel Ben Asher, a senior pilot at Arkia, explained to "Israel Today" what is behind the air pockets and if there is a reason for anxiety: "Load is measured by G-force. The largest air pockets that exist do not come close to the limits of the plane, because the load of the air pockets is relatively low. Passengers are very 'excited' by certain movements in flight, even if they are felt dramatically, but in practice airliners can withstand much more extreme loads. Most pilots do not go into active clouds or particularly unusual weather. We usually know where there is an active cloud and where the weather is An exception, and that's how we know how to avoid such areas. We work with meteorological maps, so there is no reason to be afraid of air pockets. They are not dangerous at all. They are deep within the envelope of the plane's limitations, including the very strong air pockets."
Thousands of planes are in the air at the same time (archive), photo: Reuters
Recently, an unusual case occurred on a flight to Hawaii, where several passengers were injured after a local airline's plane entered a significant air pocket.
The passengers who were injured were mainly those who were not wearing seat belts, and the cause of their injuries was the shaking of the plane.
In the end, the plane survived this air pocket as well and landed safely.
Some more data that may calm you down before your next flight: at any given moment there are thousands of planes in the sky, and most of the time the number is between 10 and 15 thousand planes that are in the air at the same time.
According to IATA (International Airline Association) data, in 2021 one flight out of every 2.27 million flights of the airlines that are part of the organization (to which most of the largest and most organized airlines in the world belong) was caught in traffic. Out of 25 million flights of companies that are part of the organization that were made that year, Zero of the accidents were fatal.
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