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Stefan Burlet

Professor Beadle

English 115

05 October 2017

Flight of Monsters

One of the most memorable episodes from the 1960s The Twilight Zone television

show was Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, where a thirty-seven-year-old Mr. Robert Wilson is

convinced he is seeing a gremlin on the wing of the plane he is aboard, but none of his fellow

passengers or crew believes him. Why was it so memorable? One reason might be because

airplanes are so full of monstrous thoughts and emotions - such as overdone media coverage,

frightening turbulence, and terrorist associations - that they reveal deep psychological fears and

values humans place upon understanding, safety, and control. Although we are almost sure that

no gremlins are on the wing of our flight, we do have monstrous fears and anxieties that make

flying seem like a more dangerous task than it really is.

However, flying is one of the safest methods of transportation. Media portrayals of airline

disasters are covered so in depth because of how rare they actually are. During an air disaster, the

news coverage is worldwide. The search for survivors and the following investigation are

followed closely by major news networks. NTSB flight experts are interviewed and analysts try

to determine the exact cause of the crash, and all of this is projected on national news. When you

compare car crash news coverage to air crash news coverage, it is easy to see that because car

crashes happen every day, they arent deemed newsworthy - because that news doesnt sell.

When airplanes crash, they are covered in-depth because it is such a rare occurrence. This shows
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how a monstrous theme surrounding airplane crashes occurs and is constantly perpetuated by

overdone news coverage every time there is an airplane crash. And similarly to the Monsters

reading of Monsters and Messiahs, where Los Angeles residents feared the Chupacabra as a

fear of the unknown, passengers in the space of airplanes lack understanding about the actual

occurrence of air disasters and therefore fear air travel because they do not know the numbers

and statistics behind airline safety.

Looking at the numbers, however, studies show surprising facts about how safe air travel

actually is. From research gathered at abcnews.com, "You're much more likely to die getting to

the airport than you are flying in the plane. Its quite surprising to some, but if you fly as a

passenger aboard an airplane, you stand an eleven million to one chance of death. Even if you

happen to be aboard a failing aircraft, you still have a survivability rate [that] is a high 95.7

percent (ABC News). So, if you make it to the airport, chance is on your side when you make it

off the ground. These misconceptions, most of which are common knowledge, show how even

though most flyers are aware that they are safe, they still have an immense fear and lack of

understanding about airplanes.

Another fear that is caused in this space is the loss of control that passengers have while

flying, especially during turbulence. After speaking directly with an airline captain, he stated that

passengers biggest fear is not having any control. Passengers have no basis to judge an airline

pilots skill or ability. For comparison, if a passenger was riding on a bus, that passenger could

easily determine the bus drivers ability because they drive a similar vehicle of their own. That

determination is much harder when done on an airplane because most passengers have no

experience flying planes. Along with my own first-hand experience in turbulence, I can agree
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that not having any control over the situation does make it more tense. This shows that the

monster of turbulence reveals how a nervous flyer fears the loss of control and values having it.

Adding to the monstrousness of this space is the actual monster of terrorism. The events

of September 11, 2001, have played such a major and fundamental shift in the way passengers

travel; and we are reminded every time we must go through extensive security. As the Homeland

Security Committee writes, there are increasing concerns that insider threats to aviation security

are on the rise. Similarly to how Chuck Klosterman equates the endless barrage of working life

to an endless horde of zombies, terrorism can be equated to what seems to be an endless war

with monsters that are trying to kill us. Thankfully, no terrorist plot aboard an airborne plane has

successfully been conducted since 9/11, but there still is a constant threat every day. And societal

divides add to the fear, causing Islamophobia and hatred. This shows that the safety within this

space is in danger and that the U.S. government and passengers are concerned about air travel

and value their own safety when flying.

In closing, air travel feels like an extremely dangerous way of travel. Every time I have

voyaged aboard an airplane, the only thing I was able to think about was the way I was going to

die in a fireball explosion on the side of a mountain. But as it turns out, these monstrous fears are

actually nothing to be afraid of. Just as Mr. Robert Wilson grew fearful of something that was

not a real threat, passengers grow fearful due to their misconceptions of flying. Air travel is by

far one of the safest ways to get around, far safer than driving or even walking. All these

monstrous fears of media portrayals, turbulence, and terrorism, reveal to us that we value having

control, safety, and understanding, but in reality, we have no monsters to be afraid of when we

go flying.
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Works Cited:

Davis, Mike. Monsters and Messiahs. The Washington Post, 11 May 1996.

Fields, Liz. What Are the Odds of Surviving a Plane Crash? ABC News, ABC News Network,

12 March 2014,

abcnews.go.com/International/odds-surviving-plane-crash/story?id=22886654.

Homeland Security Committee. Americas Airports: The Threat From Within. House

Homeland Security Committee Majority Staff Report. February 2017,

https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Americas-Airports-The-Threat-

From-Within.pdf

Klosterman, Chuck. My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead.

The New York Times, 03 December 2010.

Maass, Harold. The Odds Are 11 Million to 1 That You'll Die in a Plane Crash. The Week - All

You Need to Know about Everything That Matters, 8 July 2013,

theweek.com/articles/462449/odds-are-11-million-1-that-youll-die-plane-crash.