Willowfly - No not at all, I am not a nervous passenger. I am careful about which carriers I fly on. If you pm me I will tell you which ones I would not fly with. I do pay attention to the safety briefing no matter how many times I fly, and I have done a heck of a lot. The one thing I do not like is flying on little aircraft, it just feels wrong to me. For example, I hate those 50 seater jets that are used by the big carriers in the States on routes that are not busy enough for a proper jet such as a 737. I will not fly in a helicopter unless it was to save my life and the reason for that is simple, my father was killed in one. I have been travelling the world by air since June 1962. Despite the interesting episode I described in my earlier post I would unhesitatingly fly. I have a return trip to Majorca, a return trip to Bogota and a return trip to Sydney, all from London, coming up in the next five weeks. I understand your concerns but go for it, security hassles are much more stressful.
Admiral346 - thanks for the technical explanation, I have on occasions wondered what was going on.