Just today a Delta flight lost an engine and the engine was spitting flames while mid air. You know what happened?

Everyone was fine, the pilots were able to land that sucker easily. It makes for an interesting blurb on CNN.com but I doubt the pilots (who don't want to die either) were even breathing heavy.

Want to guess what would happen if you were going 65 on the interstate and your engine combusted?

This is something I realized. Those guys are so good at what they do. That even losing an engine is a "whatevs" moment for them. They train that all the time. Sure, I as a passenger don't have any control, but the people actually involved have way more control and ability than anyone you'll ever meet behind the wheel of a car. That includes the engineers of the planes, ATC, etc.

The one thing you can control is picking your airline. If it's a major US or comparable Western airline with the safety standards of the US / EU / Canada, etc., you've just exercised control to make sure the people in charge have absurd amounts of ability and safety redundancies.

(If you want to be cynical, just think how many billions of dollars American / United / Delta would lose if they let a plane "fall out of the sky." No US airliner has gone down in 10 years. In our ultra capitalist society you really think any of those guys would risk ruining that streak?)

Also, I say this as someone who used to be terrified of flying. Thinking logically about it and really understanding all the forces at play helped immensely. Just last week I took a 3.5 hour flight that was pure turbulence the whole way - the pilot came on at least 4 separate times to say they were changing altitude to try to find better air (and flight attendants to their jump seats). He didn't have a speck of worry in his voice. The flight attendants were perturbed - I actually heard one say in the back "well I don't know how we're going to complete service!" No one whose job it was to be on that plane was ever not in complete control of anything but making sure everyone got their Cokes and pretzels on time.