What You Need to Know to Stay Safe on a Plane

On the heels of recent tragedies, travelers may be concerned about air safety

a flight attendant giving a safety briefing

Pay attention to the flight attendants’ safety briefing. “Something the flight attendant says could save your life,” says Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety.

Jupiterimages/Getty

Adam Pitluk,

Updated March 14, 2025

AARP

En español

Published January 11, 2024

/ Updated March 14, 2025

Fears of flying often rise to the surface in the wake of air disasters, such as an American Airlines plane that caught fire on March 13, the crash of a Delta Air Lines jet on Feb. 17 and the collision of an American Airlines flight with a military helicopter on Jan. 29.

In the case of this week’s American Airlines fire, the Federal Aviation Administration said an engine caught fire as the plane taxied to the gate, the Associated Press reported. The FAA said the American Airlines flight landed safely after being diverted to Denver International Airport. Twelve people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries. On the Delta flight, which flipped over at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, all 80 people on board survived. On Jan. 29, 60 passengers and four crew members, as well as three soldiers died in the midair collision near Washington, D.C.

Incidents such as these and the loss of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight that resulted in depressurization in the cabin in January 2024 are jarring and scary. If you’re scared about flying, that’s understandable, but experts have some advice that should reassure you.

To help stem fear, there are actions you, as a passenger, can take.

Be prepared

Professor Anthony Brickhouse teaches aerospace safety with an emphasis on air crash survivability at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, one of the top five aerospace engineering schools in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. He instructs his students — many of whom will enter the aviation field — about various ways to survive an in-flight incident or, in the worst-case scenario, a plane crash. He says being properly prepared starts before you even get to the airport.

“Passengers should seriously consider what they’re wearing,” Brickhouse says, donning an Embry-Riddle polo shirt. “This shirt that I have on: It feels absolutely amazing. But it’s polyester. It’s synthetic, and synthetic fibers could be really bad in a fire situation. So I recommend that passengers consider wearing cotton or natural fiber.”

Other safety tips Brickhouse recommends:

Follow flight attendant directions and keep your seat belt fastened. “I always defer to the flight attendants, who are the professionals.”
Passengers should wear close-toed shoes and keep them on, especially during takeoff and landing. If you must evacuate the craft quickly, you don’t want to be in flip-flops or worse, barefoot.
Always eat a meal before you get on a flight. If an emergency happens, you don’t want to be sluggish because you didn’t eat.
Once you board the aircraft and take your seat, be sure to note the closest exit, even if it’s behind you. “I even go as far as recommending to count the rows to the emergency exit. Therefore, if you don’t have any visibility, you can hopefully navigate your way out,” he says.
Pay attention to the flight attendants’ safety briefing. “It’s really frustrating to me when I fly and I look around and passengers have their AirPods in, and they’re not paying attention to the flight attendants. Something the flight attendant says could save your life.”
If you need to evacuate the plane, don’t grab your carry-on luggage. It significantly slows down the evacuation process.

Safety record

Mitch Bell, a former Marine pilot and current commercial pilot with more than 25 years of experience, stresses that air travel is still by far the safest mode of public transit. Bell, who has logged hundreds of hours in the 737 Max aircraft, points to the statistics: According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, from 2008 to 2017, the global fatality rate on airplanes was one death for every 7.9 million people boarding. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, citing data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, 42,939 deaths occurred in 2021, resulting in 12.9 deaths per 100,000 people and 1.37 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.

“I want everybody to know, don’t be afraid of flying. With the technology that we have and the constant training that we have, it’s one of the greatest professions,” says Bell, who hosts a podcast called Tall Tales With Taco Bell, on which he speaks to military personnel and aviators.

Bell had to call “Mayday” when he was flying an aircraft that decompressed. In 2004, he was flying an MD-80 from Dallas/Fort Worth to Monterrey, Mexico. After the pilots reached their 35,000-foot cruising altitude, the plane completely lost pressure in the cabin. Bell says he and the other pilot executed a textbook emergency landing.

“I would say that the number of people that I know who have had an engine fail in the 25 years I’ve been doing this, I could probably count on one hand,” he says. “It’s very few. I’m one of the few crews, I think, that has had a depressurization event. And it’s just a very rare deal.”

If a traumatic event occurs during a flight — such as clear-air turbulence, which won’t down a plane but probably will scare everyone onboard — Bell acknowledges that passengers want to hear from the pilot immediately. Be aware: Should a situation arise, pilots have a protocol they follow that may prohibit them from addressing the passengers as quickly as the pilot — and the passengers — would like.

“Aviate, navigate, communicate,” Bell says, describing the pecking order of events vis-à-vis the pilots in the cockpit. If the plane becomes compromised, the first step a pilot takes is to aviate, or regain control, of the craft. Once the pilots are confident they can fly the plane and it’s airworthy, they navigate, or course correct, the aircraft and establish a heading. Finally, when the pilots have the cockpit in order, then they communicate the situation to the passengers, which is why in an emergency situation, passengers won’t hear the pilot’s voice immediately.

How can passengers find out what kind of aircraft they’ll be on?

The type of aircraft used for a flight can be listed in the flight details, and you can find it during seat selection when making your reservations online. If the information is not readily visible, Google Flights, FlightAware, ExpertFlyer and SeatGuru may have it.

Bell and Brickhouse say it really doesn’t matter what aircraft you’re on: They’re all safe.

“Nobody should have any issues getting on an aircraft,” Bell says.

Contributing: Associated Press

Editor’s note: This story was originally published Jan. 11, 2024, and has been updated to reflect new information.

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Adam Pitluk is an award-winning journalist and book author. He is the group publisher of Midwest Luxury Publishing and Groom Lake Media.

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