So it gets a lot of media attention. By way of contrast, death due to drunk driving and bicycle accidents are common and kill one or two people at a time, so it gets little media attention. Airplanes have a lot of mysterious high technology associated with them. Airplanes represent a tremendous surrender of control. If we decide in the middle of the ocean that we don't want to do this any more, then there is nothing we can do.
Airplanes are uncomfortable.
The seats are uncomfortably thin, and they don't recline far enought to really allow sleeping. The light is bad, the food is awful, and the people around you are typically stressed. Humans evolved on the ground. But even birds are afraid of heights. There are some birds that live around the Grand Canyon in Arizona.