With more and more news coming out about the Malaysia flight that was shot down over the Ukraine and Russia’s supposed responsibility in it, we might be wondering about our safety as travelers and how safe it might be to head over to Europe in the near future. It’s a fair concern—the passengers of that flight would have had no idea that they were in any danger.
Recent news has been flooding the web about how pilots and executives are working to find safe flight patterns for their passengers and how we can continue to reach our destinations without worry. Still, the fact that the last incident with Malaysia Airlines was so completely out-of-the-blue might have us fretting about flying around that area.
I have recently had to change my own travel plans for when I return to Europe (as a member of Generation Y, I still have to factor in the concern of my parents before I head off anywhere). The plan was to fly from Iceland to Estonia and backpack my way down to Italy from there, but with safety issues continually cropping up, I have chosen to fly into Prague instead, where it looks as though I will meet a friend and we will travel together.
It’s not my dream trip—I had been resolved on traveling alone and I would have loved to claim that I had been to countries that I had never even imagined I would like Latvia and Estonia. But safety does, in fact, sometimes need to come first, and I am sure I will have more fun with a travel buddy and I will be a lot safer.
Which isn’t to say that I do not think you shouldn’t be able to travel solo on a trip like this, or that you shouldn’t make the trip at all because of fear. Life and being able to travel is an opportunity to begin with, and if you constantly live in fear, you might find yourself never really living the life that you want. I think finding a balance between being smart and making good decisions and taking some well-calculated risks can help you decide whether or not you want to make the particular journey you have planned. It might not be exactly what you want, but it can still be worth your time and you can still find yourself on a great adventure—even if it’s not what you had written down on the original itinerary.
Have you ever had to change travel plans for safety reasons?
Image courtesy of Elliot Brown.