Superstitions give fliers illusion of control

DETROIT — It's not the engines that make the airplane fly.

It's James Steinhagen's finger circles.

"As the plane begins the takeoff roll, I whirl my finger around in a small circle faster and faster as the plane accelerates down the runway," the Troy, Mich., man, 62, said. "My thinking is that this will help keep the engines running as we prepare to climb into the air. Fortunately, I have not had a situation where this didn't work — at least not yet."

It may sound crazy. It may sound strange. But Steinhagen is definitely not alone in his flying superstitions.

"My wife and I have this superstition that we always lift our feet while the plane is accelerating down the runway until it leaves the ground. This helps the plane into the air," said Carl Steinecker, 64, of South Lyon, Mich.

"I lift up on the armrest to get the plane into the air," said Dr. Thomas Harding, 53, a Milwaukee psychiatrist.

"I never told anybody about my strange superstition. So far, however, it works; it has kept hundreds of planes from crashing," said Margie Reins Smith of Grosse Pointe, Mich. "Somewhere, when I was very young, I read that most plane crashes occur during the first 15 seconds of flight. So I start counting when the wheels leave the ground — one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand — up to 15. Works like a charm."

Flying superstitions help otherwise-sensible travelers gain an illusion of control when they are in a tin can suspended in the sky, experts say.

"Since people look into the air and see nothing holding the plane up, it all seems like magic anyway, right? So if you lift up on the arm rest, it might help the plane rise," said Tom Bunn, a psychologist and pilot who runs SOAR, a program to conquer the fear of flying.

"In addition, there is an anthropomorphism going on — the plane is not just a mechanical object, but it has feelings. You think the plane is trying and struggling, and you need to help it, so there is the spinning of the finger to help the engine turn. There's the lifting of the feet off the floor, which is really kind of cute."

Flying superstitions are not the same as the fear of flying. People are willing to fly. They just have rituals and charms to make sure everything goes well.