many people think they can land a plane safely – Wel.nl

A pilot is really just a well-paid bus driver, the Ryanair boss once said. And apparently a lot of people think that way: almost 30% think they’ll be able to land a plane safely.

This is according to a New Zealand study. But it gets even stronger: if you show people a 4-minute video of pilots landing a plane in a mountainous environment, even 38% think they could do it too.

It is all the more strange that the 780 respondents consider piloting to be a complicated skill (rating 4.4 out of 5). According to the researchers, this is because people “tend to overestimate their confidence in certain things” due to a “quick delusion”.

It is well known that people overestimate what they can do. For example, many believe they can drive better than average and know better than their boss in the office.

The researchers were therefore particularly surprised by the contrast. “On the one hand, people tell us: it takes a lot of experience to fly such a plane. On the other hand, they are convinced that they could possibly do it themselves.”