I was mostly talking about flying, but trains and boats can get scary, too. Have you ever been in a crash? Narrowly missed being involved? Had a creepy feeling about yourself or someone else's safety? Were you right?

Or, what would you do/have you done in close proximity to an air/rail/sea disaster? Change your plans? Proceed anyway?

-- Never (never@never.to), July 25, 2000

Answers

Oh, and do share if you have unusual flying fears. I know I'm not alone about that thing on the wing.

-- Never (never@never.to), July 25, 2000.

About an hour ago I'm sitting in the commissary of the US Embassy here in Bucharest, and CNN International is showing, so we're all keeping an eye on it as we're eating lunch. My luck, I'm with three State Department officials (or similar) who have stories to tell such as:

"I knew a professor who was on stand-by for Pan Am 103 [the one that blew up over Lockerbie], and he begged to get on the flight so that he could get home for Christmas...."

"I knew a woman who was on a flight that went down; she was going home for her daughter's wedding."

"My wife and I had *tickets* to be on Pan Am 103 from Germany to New York, but canceled them."

Hanging out with people who spend much of their lives on airplanes is a BAD idea when something like this happens. Also, while it's fun to go into the cockpit (I think it's only permissible on non-U.S. flights, if then), you're likely to hear cheerful stories such as "see that switch? There was a flight in South America in this very type of aircraft, where that switch was in the other position, and 239 people died!"

All in all, I guess I've been pretty lucky in my flights so far. But I just bought a ticket home so I think I should not say anything to jinx that....

-- Dorothy Rothschild (dorothyr@spies.com), July 26, 2000.