I was recently 4 hours into a flight from Chicago to Germany on a large double-decker Airbus when I started smelling smoke on the plane.
Suddenly I see flight attendants running to the back of the plane with fire extinguishers. Other flight attendants are running to the front of the plane with bottles of liquor.
The captain comes over the intercom: "Flight attendants, prepare for emergency landing"
Over the next 5 minutes I watch how different people react to the scenario. Some people grab hands, some start to pray, some people just close their eyes. Others start demanding up-to-the-minute information about our situation.
Without warning, we hit the ground. In a made-for-the-movies moment, the entire plane erupts in applause.
The rest of my trip I was a little nervous getting back on planes. However, the one thing that helped me keep things in perspective was something the flight-attendant said during our emergency landing:
"I have a husband in Germany. I don't want to die either. We're doing everything we can."
Simple and rational. It always works for me too.
FYI, the smoke turned out to be a coffee maker--and after several hours stuck on the tarmac in Newfoundland, we were on our way again.
"They pilot doesn't want to die either".
That has more-or-less destroyed any fear I have of flying.