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Commercial airline travel is incredibly, almost inconceivably, safe.
According to the International Air Transport Association, out of 40,600,000 flights worldwide in the year 2024, only seven resulted in a crash that took a human life. Here’s another way to represent those numbers: You would need to fly every day for over 18,000 years just to face a fatal risk one time.
That means that driving to the airport is several million times more dangerous than boarding your flight.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to sit in a metal tube 30,000 feet above the ground – having just listened to the flight attendant say, “In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device” – and not imagine what it would be like if the plane crashed.
In her book The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why, Amanda Ripley points out that everyone wonders how they might react.
What if, for instance, your plane has landed but there is a fire – a scenario faced by the passengers on an American Eagle flight out of St. Louis just two days ago?
Escape is urgent. Every second counts. Studies suggest that passengers have less than four minutes to leave their seats and get to a safe place.
Airline safety experts have long known that two particularly bad decisions put lives at risk.
The first is the temptation to stop long enough to grab a carry-on bag. Many passengers apparently feel that life can’t go on without their laptops, their purses, or the gift they are delivering to their grandchildren. People who are desperate to escape the smoke and flames inevitably pile up behind them.
Thousands of people in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, paused before heading to the stairwells.
Many of them placed phone calls. Others watched CNN for updates. Still others took time to power down their computers. One woman, who was on her way to safety, went back to her desk to retrieve a novel she had been reading.
This is not unusual behavior during disasters, according to Ripley. It’s hard for our brains to take in the unfolding chaos. In a misguided attempt to reclaim normalcy, we deny the dangers we are facing and pursue familiar routines. Such delays can be fatal.
The other bad decision comes at the moment when it’s time to act.
In a compromised airplane, that decisive moment often happens at an exit. When it’s time to jump on the slide and get away from the burning jet fuel, many passengers freeze. Reservations cloud their minds.
So how do I go down this slide? I don’t want to look stupid if I do it wrong. I’m a few pounds overweight. Will it still hold me? Why did I wear this frumpy outfit today? The slide’s a whole lot longer than I thought. Are you sure this thing is safe?
Experience has shown there is one sure way to help a hesitant passenger go forward.
When disaster strikes, a flight attendant is assigned to stand at the exit and scream. “Jump! Get out of here! I mean now!” Screaming seems to break the spell of disaster-induced paralysis – the very thing that helped ensure the survival of every passenger on the American Eagle flight last Saturday.
All of us need someone who is able and willing to scream at us when it’s time to take action.
That seems odd. We’re used to thinking it’s good to be surrounded by gentle and encouraging voices. On any given day, it’s comforting to know we have time to think things through, to weigh options, to play out various scenarios. That seems wise.
But there’s another way to look at wise decision-making:
When you know what is right, do it. And do it now.
Jesus’ public ministry began with an announcement and a challenge. Both were simple and powerful. “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Good News” (Mark 1:15). Or, to put it another way, “Your chance to experience God’s rule over your life is now fully available, right here and right now. So turn around immediately and take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“Repent,” or metanoia in Greek, means “change-mind.” It implies a 180-degree course correction.
To repent doesn’t mean to consider going a different direction. It doesn’t mean to talk about it, or think about it, or write a term paper about it.
If every human life, in the end, has the impermanence of something burning down behind us, a spiritual friend is someone willing to stand at the exit and scream into your ears, “Go! Stop trying to manage that addiction that is killing you. Quit worrying about that ‘carry-on’ of your old life that will only slow you down.
“Choose a better tomorrow. It’s time to jump. Do it now!”
That’s the urgency of Jesus’ message.
And in ways we can only begin to comprehend, it’s a matter of spiritual life and death.