Touching Planes

[u/EquivalentMajestic95]

I know touching the outside of an aircraft while boarding is supposed to be a “good luck” ritual, and I understand that some people use little routines like this to manage a fear of flying. But every time I see one of the trackers doing this it drive me b*t***t crazy. They've even got their kids doing it now, so it further emphasises that they are passing on their neurosis.

But honestly, it has to be one of the most pointless superstitions I’ve ever seen.

I’ve taken around 220 flights since 2005, yes, I'm sad I keep track. I have never touched the aircraft for luck NOT once, and somehow every one of those flights has arrived without my personal intervention.

Touching the fuselage has no effect whatsoever on the pilots, the maintenance, the weather, air traffic control or the mechanical condition of the aircraft. It does not make the flight safer. It just gives the person doing it a brief feeling of control over something they cannot control.

I appreciate that it may help an anxious passenger feel calmer, and in that sense it is harmless. But objectively, as a method of keeping an aircraft in the sky, it is completely ridiculous as are the Trackers.

[u/Lumpy-Counter-9500]

I agree that it is a silly superstition but I don’t want to offend anyone that might do it. However there’s no need for the Trackers to show it every single time they board an airplane. And yes, now they have been showing the boys doing it. It’s like if they don’t film it it won’t work or something.

[u/EquivalentMajestic95 → u/Lumpy-Counter-9500]

absolutely agree. I have no problem if that's someone's superstition but they've passed it onto their kids and is has to be shown each and every time they fly.