About
Calm, honest information about flying.
Why I built this
I've spent years building aviation-safety technology. The thing that struck me most is how much reassuring information already exists, and how hard it is to find. It sits in FAA handbooks and NTSB reports, written for professionals.
SafelyAboard is my attempt to bring it out into plain English: the chime, the thump after takeoff, the moment the engines go quiet. Each explanation links to the original source so you can check it yourself. There are no ratings, no scare headlines, and it's free.
If it makes one flight a little easier for you, it's done its job.
Robert Handley
Founder, SafelyAboard
What this site is
SafelyAboard is a free site for nervous flyers and curious travelers. We explain aviation in plain English, link every specific fact to its source, and tell you clearly when something isn't known yet.
What we do
- Incident explainers built only from official investigation reports and reputable reporting.
- Explainers and FAQs on what you see, hear and feel on a flight, plus an interactive "Is this normal?" guide.
- Ask SafelyAboard: automated answers built only from our sourced articles and the FAA and NTSB sources they cite. They aren't written by a pilot or any other person.
- Aircraft type guides with US fleet size, age and raw NTSB record counts (never scores).
- Tail number lookup using the public FAA aircraft registry and NTSB accident database.
What we don't do
- We don't rate, rank or score airlines, operators or aircraft, and we don't publish risk scores.
- We don't speculate about causes before investigators publish findings.
- We don't show the names of private individuals who own aircraft.
Data
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database (file dated 2026-10-16).
- NTSB aviation accident database (1982–present). Status: loaded: avall.mdb, Pre2008.mdb.
- Last refreshed: 2026-10-17 20:47 UTC.
Nothing on this site is professional, medical, legal or travel advice. If you are struggling with fear of flying, many airlines and organisations run dedicated courses, and a doctor or therapist can help.