They can't get off the plane and they aren't permitted in the cockpit. It seems much safer in a car because we can typically drive whenever we want and pull over whenever we feel like it. In an automobile accident only a few people are injured or killed at the most. The mind perceives this as a small risk compared to the possibility of over 100 people being killed in one airline accident. In addition, being on the ground while traveling seems less risky than traveling 35,000 feet in the air.
People think they have a general sense of how cars work.
They know there is this engine that has pistons that produce energy that turn the wheels. We have been exposed to cars so frequently over so many years that we travel by car with little sense of risk. Flying, on the other hand, is an inherently unnatural event for humans and can seem quite mysterious. The complexity of commercial flight leads us to feel insecure, since we are naturally more afraid of the unknown than the known. As you will read in the next few pages, flying is, indisputably, the safest form of modern transportation .