Last week I went to a cafe where we got the opportunity to speak with a pilot. It was really interesting. One thing that really struck me was when we were talking about safety and how traveling by plane is safer than traveling by car. I was reminded of the time when the plane that I was on had make an “emergency landing”. I was in high school, and I was traveling with my parents to go on college visits. We had just taken off when the pilot came on and told us that one of the engines wasn’t working and we had to go back to the airport. Those 15 minutes until we landed were some of the most terrifying moments of my life. Thankfully, we landed safely at the airport and everyone was fine. I noticed as we were landing that there were firetrucks and ambulances waiting in case the landing did not go as planned. Even though this was a scary experience, this really reinforced how safe air travel is. The plane was fine and able to land even though one of its engines wasn’t working. There are redundancies to make sure that such a malfunction isn’t catastrophic.