When you dream about an aircraft crash, you have some concerns about a plan or project you are involved with in waking life. The sky symbolizes your thinking space and aeroplanes represent how your plans can be steered towards successful conclusions. The bigger the aeroplane, the more ambitious the plan, so dreaming about an airliner usually represents a large project involving a number of people.

Although the project has been well planned and seems to be valid in theory, your confidence in it is plummeting and you are concerned that it is going to come down to earth with a bang. But just when it seems like the project will end in an unsatisfactory conclusion, it is able to continue but at a lower level than before.

Scraping along between trees and buildings shows that the people involved in the project are finding it difficult to make their plans really take off and are having to deal with a variety of obstacles in their path. If the aeroplane does make contact with the ground and breaks up, it usually indicates the project is being terminated and may be split up into smaller and more manageable pieces.

Passengers walking unharmed from the wreckage show that those involved in the project are free to move onto other opportunities. If you are onboard the aircraft, it shows that you are actively involved in this project rather than viewing from the outside. Taking control shows that you have the ability to guide it towards a successful outcome.

The message from this dream is to consider the current trajectory of a project or a plan in which you are involved. Although the concern for most projects is getting them off the ground, any pilot will tell you take off is the easy part.

The hard part is landing the project and ensuring the safe and secure passage of everyone involved in it. Rather than being involved in some flight of fancy, plan the project in as much detail as you can. It is also valuable to have a contingency plan, in case you are diverted by some unforeseen event.

Although aeroplanes are a recent invention in human history, our ancestors used to dream of being borne aloft on the wings of eagles. These dreams evolved into myths such as that of Daedalus and Icarus who made wings so they can transport themselves through the sky.

In many of these myths, the wings fail and the flier plummets to the ground as airy theory is confronted by hard reality. We now take air travel almost for granted and it has become commonplace to use phrases such as ‘let's get this thing off the ground’ and ‘in a holding pattern’ to describe our plans and projects.