Every time Michelle Tucker flies, she reaches out and gives the plane a little tap, tap, tap as she boards.
“Like you give a dog a little pat on the head,” said Tucker, 51, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. “We now have the connection.”
A nervous flier, Tucker picked up the habit from her husband of 26 years, who double taps the plane. Their teenagers do the same. So do untold numbers of fellow travelers who touch, tap and pat the aircraft as they prepare to hurtle across the sky at 38,000 feet.
Many of them have shared the habit on social media, finding kindred spirits amid fellow plane touchers who are pleased to discover they aren’t alone. Commenters say they tell the plane “you got this” or wish it a safe flight; they may even say a prayer as they rest their hand on the surface.
“It’s a simple gesture — and a very human one,” said Patrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot and founder of the Ask the Pilot blog, in an email. “Let’s face it, even the most frequent flier contemplates his or her mortality on some level when stepping aboard a plane. That friendly tap is a gesture of luck and reassurance.”
Tucker, who writes the family travel blog Staying Blonde, joked in a TikTok about “protecting everyone on this flight” with the taps. She said the gesture serves as part superstition and part routine to calm herself down before a flight.
“Our bodies, I don’t think, are made to understand flying through the air,” she said.
Share this with someone who also does this whenever they board a plane
We don’t know where this comes from or why people do it (apparently it’s for luck), but Mike can’t help himself – whenever we fly, his hand is touching the side of that plane!
#airplaneritual #touchtheplane #goodluck #travelcouple #relatabletravel
Uneasy fliers often embrace rituals when they travel, wearing certain clothes, eating specific foods or uttering precise phrases, Nathan Feiles, a New York-based psychotherapist and fear of flying specialist, said in an email.
Feiles has seen and worked with people who touch the plane’s exterior as they board. He said the action can be a superstition that gives travelers a feeling of control or a way to foster trust and connection with the plane, like petting a horse before climbing on.
“It’s almost like saying ‘we’ve got each other, I’m trusting you,’” he wrote.
For some, he said, touching the plane’s side might just be a way to participate in a social media trend — albeit one embraced by people who have flown safely.
Britney Wilson, 45, a marketing agency founder who lives near Nashville, puts her hand on the plane and says a prayer for the pilots, crew and passengers as she walks on board. She prays for safety, good behavior in the cabin and grace.
“Just real quick and I try to be discreet so I don’t freak anybody out,” she said.
If she’s flying Southwest, she aims for the heart icon right next to the door.
“I think they did it on purpose. They could have put that heart anywhere,” she said. “It’s like, high five the heart.”
Anyone else do this thing where you touch the plane as you enter, just as a mark of respect and thanks for a safe flight ahead? I did it randomly once and now it’s a tradition.
pic.twitter.com/Dsv27GfFdC
— Lavanya Krishnan, MS, MPH (@l_krishnan) May 2, 2022
Travel adviser Katherine Dale, 55, of West Bend, Wisconsin, posted a video on TikTok set to the “Mission: Impossible” theme song confessing that she must touch the plane before boarding.
“In my head, touching the plane means we’re going to get there safely,” she wrote in an email. “I know my hand isn’t actually keeping the plane in the sky, but I’m not willing to test the theory!”
She said it’s been a routine as long as she can remember, and one that she’s passed down to her children.
Samantha Stogner, a 25-year-old dance teacher who lives outside Phoenix, has been tapping planes for good luck for ages. She compiled a video showing her touching more than a dozen jets.
Stogner said in an email that the practice might have become a compulsion that she feels like she has to do — but she likes to think “it helps put good energy” into the universe for her flight.
“Simply a tap and touch of good luck and energy I am hoping to receive on the flight,” she said.
Houston Hobby Airport – My flight ritual: Touching the plane before boarding. Next stop: DCA – going home! #hobbyairport #houstontx #southwestairlines #dcbound #goinghome
Feiles, the psychotherapist, said preflight rituals can be useful if they help someone feel better about flying. But, he said, some can be harmful, especially if they lead someone to dwell on what could go wrong as a form of mental or emotional preparation.
“Many times, preflight rituals can actually be emotionally overwhelming, all-consuming and cause dread,” he wrote. “Just because something is a ritual doesn’t mean it’s always something that feels good.”
For the plane’s part, Smith, the pilot, said there is no problem with a little pat on the way in.
“I’m known to do it myself — though in my case it’s more of a fist-bump,” he wrote.
The post Why some passengers touch the plane before boarding appeared first on Washington Post.
