5:00PM TODAY. Two-frustrating-hours on the road trying to find a reroute, looking for a possible way out or back from where I came from. I swear, it was just one straight line… Never imagined driving Espana to EDSA-Quezon Ave. would take me forever, stuck in a traffic jam that has no visible cause other than the fact that everyone else has decided to slow down for no reason. Terrible! And then there was Alanis…  on the radio, of course, singin’ IRONIC…

She goes “…Mr. ‘Play-it-Safe’ was afraid to fly, he packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye.  He waited his whole damn life to take that flight, and as the plane crashed down he thought ‘Well isn’t this nice…’  Isn’t it ironic… don’t you think?”

My train of thoughts began. Those lines… why do they keep playing automatically at the back of my head each time I’m up there flying?  

After hearing about the Yemeni plane which recently crashed in the Indian Ocean, and Bahia Bakari, the 14-year-old sole survivor of that flight… ‘could not help but think… think deeply.

Had I completely overcome my PHOBIA? It’s not a fear of airplanes I guess or even a fear of heights. For me it’s more like a fear of lack of control, the idea that I am contained in the plane, if something goes wrong in a snap, I can’t do anything!   

And then I remember those bits of nasty humors about local airline company slogans insinuating their vulnerabilities.  Like Cebu Pacific… where you fly from Cebu land in d Pacific (ocean); Asian Spirit… fly as Asian(s) wither as Spirits; Zest Air… fly with Zest, vanish in thin Air. Geees… I don’t see how remembering any of these would help me forget about my fear of flying.

Every time I set foot on a plane, can’t help but get the notion that I am risking a lifetime chance to be with my loved ones still.  Like half/half… every flight could mean either an exciting trip…or to the least, and may the good Lord forbid… an ‘emergency landing’.  Just the thought of a plane crash gives me the creeps!

And then I began wondering how it is to be in the airplane physically, when it actually loses control and start to go down and crash. Like, due to heavier weight of the plane compared to passengers, are the passengers pushed back towards the rear most part of the plane killing everyone virtually instantly? Or does something else happen?

Also, when an airplane crashes through the water, what happens? Does it continue down towards the bottom of the sea, eventually being crushed by the water pressure when it has gone down long enough; or it lands rather “peacefully” on the water surface, with passengers largely intact.

Do you know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes? The ‘why can’t they make the whole plane out of the same material,’ is out of the question already, the material could be WAY too expensive, yes, but I’m pretty sure AN OPTION (to survive a crash)would sound GREATER than GREAT!

Of course any plane crash is tragic. A 14-year-old kid who can barely swim, could have just given up after that traumatic crash, considering how strong the impact could have been.  But her FAITH and will-to-survive saved her as she clung to a floating debris for more than 12 hours before the search team spotted her in rough seas…and thinking what could the mother have done up to the last minute of her life in order to try to save her daughter? Picture how she has embraced her daughter in a way that would completely protect her from the impact.  That is LOVE.  That’s why I can obviously say that the kid’s seemingly miraculous escape from such air disaster, perhaps, is simply God’s way of telling us that there is always HOPE even when we think all hope is gone.

And then it all dawned on me, it really doesn’t matter where you are at. When it’s your time… it is! When it’s not… no matter what hell you go through in any tragic circumstance… you’ll make it! It doesn’t take a bad weather, or a stupid pilot, or a lightning, or any freak accident to dictate an ending. Our days would surely come in each of our own time… and when it does be sure you have your 3 things intact- faith, hope and love, these will SAVE you from any of your two possible destinations… life or eternity.  If you have invested on these things your entire life, only then you can say YOU’RE GOOD TO GO!  As for me, COPING as you can see… I believe I can fly!