Really worried about my mother

My mum works in quite a high up position which means she is always (usually at least once every two weeks) flying to various countries for business. After the large number of passenger aircraft incidents in the past few months, I'm getting really worried about something happening on one of her flights.

Every time she leaves for a business trip I sit around worrying from take off until landing and I'm always terrified to check the news in case I find out her plane has crashed or gone missing.

I've read a lot of articles that say flying is still safe in order to try and reassure myself, but nothing seems to be helping and I really don't know what to do anymore.

I can completely understand why you would be worried. The media always jumps on incidence involving aircrafts and it make air travel seem much more dangerous than it is. I clearly remember when I was younger and things like 9/11 were happening I would really worry about my dad when he traveled. Part of me knew that this fear was irrational but that didn't really help. What really helped was talking to my dad about it. Have you talked to your mum about how you are feeling?

My dad is a pilot with British Airways and has been since I was born. He's had a couple of engine fires (on separate occasions, I should point out) that have resulted in the engine needing to be shut down. According to him, pilots can go entire careers without ever having to do an engine shut-down unless in the simulator.

In short, flying is really safe. There are thousands of aircraft up in the air right now, the chances of something happening to any one of those aircraft is slim.
It's unfortunate that there have been some quite high-profile plane crashes/incidents within the past year, and in our living memory (let's say the last 20 years or so). But you should be assured that aviation is a very safe industry. You're more likely to have a serious incident in a car than in a plane.

Talk to your mum if you are really worried about her. But in my experience, given my dad's job, I've always been comfortable flying and have never considered it an unsafe endeavour. Things go wrong in all walks of life every now and then - someone could fly to Japan on a business trip and there be an earthquake whilst they're there, but that doesn't stop people from going to Japan.

The chances of things like this happening are rare. You'd have to be very unfortunate to be in the wrong place at wrong time.

Try not to worry : )

I haven't really had a chance to sit down alone with her and talk properly. She's always so busy and even when she's not at work, she'll be answering emails or working on projects. I guess I don't want to add to her list of worries.

Obviously you know your mum and how she will react best. However I would hope that she would want to know the something is upsetting you this much so she can support you.

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not hugely close to my mum because she was always busy and didn't have a huge amount of time for family.

I know this is quite a personal question, but did your dad say anything in particular to make you feel better? I understand if you don't want to answer.

Maybe you should ask her to text when she gets on and off the plane (not during the flight because you have to have everything on flight safe mode) so that you can be sure she has arrived safely, and don't have to worry about seeing on the news that she hasn't.

I've never used this website before but apparently it gives you live updates on planes. If you don't want to talk to your mum about it (and I would advise that you should speak to her) you could use that website to check up on the flights she is on. If a plane crashes or disappears, you will be able to see it on the website.

I know other people have said this, and I know you're aware of this, but do bear in mind that there is a ridiculously low chance that she will be in a plane crash. I know that fears don't always follow that kind of logic though.

Lol aircraft related crashes are 1/100000000000+ if you take trusted airlines like ba, virgin etc.

I've heard that flying is safer than travelling by car.

being in a car is probably more dangerous than flying, would you worry about her driving to work?

It wasn't anything that hasn't been said here. Just that plane travel is safe and that crashes are unusual. It was the change of behaviour which helped. He would drop me a quick text if his flight was delayed and when he landed. I meant that the amount of time that I was worried as he was in the air was shorter.