Flying can cause a lot of people to grip the arm rest with anxious energy, but a new app wants to help alleviate that and be a weapon against irrationality. But will it help? Source: Getty Images
THE thought of flying can make even the toughest of us a little weak in the knees.
If you’re one of the many travellers that become nervous while flying and can’t help but play the opening scene from Lost in your head, this could be the dose of mathematical reality you need.
A new app aims to put the passenger’s mind at ease by showing them just how unlikely it is that the plane will go down.
The app, somewhat frighteningly called, ‘Am I Going Down?’ uses a data base of statistics to calculate the probability that the aircraft will make an unwanted meeting with the ground.
It’s pretty simple really, you select the departing airport, the destination airport, the carrier and the type of aircraft and then tap the “Am I Going down?” button to put everything into perspective.
That's right, when it comes to air travel, peace of mind can cost you just $A1.29 from the Apple iTunes store.
For instance, when flying from Sydney to Singapore on a Boeing 747 with Air China the app reassuringly informs you that you would need to take the same flight every day for 6,894 years to expect to go down.
One in two-and-a-half million is pretty good odds. Source: Supplied
The app has assessed more than 10 million routes drawing on data sources such as the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archive and the Civil Aviation Organisation.
The catalyst for the apps’ creation appears to have come from the right place as the developer Nic Johns says he made the app in an effort to alleviate the anxiety of his wife who is a nervous flyer.
“Her fear originated many years ago after backpacking around Australia and South East Asia. Despite many carefree flights that year, the final flight home from Bangkok to London was a white-knuckle ride. Ever since that event flying has been traumatic ... a lot of the concept comes from trying to allay her own fears,” he told news.com.au.
Mr. Johns, who works as a software developer, has been pleasantly surprised by the amount of attention the app has received.
“There has been mixed feedback from nervous flyers, for some the fear can’t be addressed by statistics but on the whole people have been very supportive,” he said.
However with a number of high profile airline incidents in the news lately, Mr. Johns has had to be delicate with the release of the app. In a case of unfortunate timing, the app went live just days after Air Asia flight QZ8501 went missing leading to the carrier being temporarily omitted from the app.
Currently the app is only available on Apple devices, with the potential of an android version hitting the market in the future.
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