As the traveling season is upon us, the Huffington Post published some alarming airplane secrets that you may want to know.

Each day, about 87,000 flights take off in the United States.  The first eleven minutes of take off and landing are the most dangerous times during the flight and the most anxiety filled.  While landing at night, the lights in the aircraft are dimmed, but not for the lighting.  They are dimmed in case of evacuation.  While your eyes are already used to the darkness, your eyes will be adjusted to see outside once the aircraft is evacuated.

During the flight, after you have had your snacks and drink and have to use the lavatory, you think you are safe in there, locking it and such.  But, once the lavatory is locked, it can be unlocked from the outside, underneath of the “non-smoking” sign.

The blankets that are passed out during long flights have not been washed.  They get refolded and stuffed back into the over compartment bins between each flight.  The only fresh ones are distributed on the first flight each day.

Next time when you board a plane, look at the handles located near the doors.  Those handles are there for a flight attendant to hold onto incase they are shoved off of the plane.  The flight attendants also do not obey the “no cellphone” rule.  After they tell you to turn off and stow all electronic devices, they go and sit in their seat and text on their phones.  Granted, it does help the pilots for cells phones to be turned off because if they weren’t the signals would be interfering with their satellites, but having them on will not harm the plane.

The masks that are located above each seat that provides oxygen to each person, only have a maximum time of fifteen minutes.  So if your plane starts to descend unexpectedly and your masks are brought down, you will only be provided with fifteen minutes of oxygen.  That is why the flight attendants tell you over the intercom to place your mask on first and then your child’s so you both will be safe.

It is also very common for planes to be struck by lightning.  It is not rare for it to happen.  It does not affect the plane, but the lights may flicker or turn off.

Planes are one of the safest ways to travel, although there are some bad sides to this.  Don’t let these facts from Huffington Post change your mind about traveling by planes, they were just some facts to let you in on the secrets.