New Fears About ‘Flying the Friendly Skies’
Almost 25 million Americans have some sort of flying-related fear, from nerves and anxiety to full-on aviophobia.
And now, recent news of what we now know was the tragic demise of Air France Flight 447 on Sunday night over the Atlantic Ocean has awakened a fear in many people who might not usually dwell on it.
I’m sure, to some extent, most of us feel some level of anxiety or vulnerability as our flight turns the final corner on the runway before accelerating and finally taking off. For some people, it’s nothing a sedative or a pre-flight cocktail can’t quell.
But for those people with a real fear of flying, just the thought of that pivotal moment in their trip can be enough to bring on the sweaty palms and racing heart. And for some, that fear is enough to keep them permanently grounded.
Now, we all know that probability-wise, the risks associated with driving a car are significantly higher than those associated with air travel — with research showing that the latter has actually gotten safer over the last couple of decades.
In fact, statistically speaking, the lifetime odds of dying in an air travel accident are 1-in-20,000 compared with 1-in-100 for an auto accident. And according to the NTSB, highway fatalities account for more than 94 percent of all transportation deaths — airplanes included.
But even though we understand that logically and statistically speaking, our chances of getting in a car accident are much greater than anything happening when we fly, it’s often the fact that we relinquish all control over our own well-being — for however long it takes us to get from point A to point B — to the pilot and his crew.
And for people prone to anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorders, this loss of control and the vulnerability we feel can become overwhelming, triggering a panic attack or worse. So it’s important for people suffering from these disorders to make sure they always carry their medication with them while they are traveling.
Other common phobias that can contribute to a fear of flying include claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces) and acrophobia (fear of heights).
Fortunately, today there are places to get help with your fears. Support groups and therapy are two options that have been around for a long time. But more recently, airlines have started to offer classes with flight simulators to help would-be passengers confront their anxieties and become more comfortable with the experience.
So while it may seem like there has been a lot of aviation incidents between the news coverage of the “Miracle on the Hudson” in January, and the fatal crash involving Continental Connection Flight 3407 in Clarence, NY just a month later — considering the fact that there are more than 87,000 flights in the skies over the U.S. on any given day — flying is still one of the safest way to travel.
Perhaps what leaves so many people feeling unsettled and fearful after this most recent accident is the mystery behind it. After a horrible tragedy, part of the healing process is to come to terms with what happened and try to make sense of it all. But as the days pass and the world looks on as investigators try to piece together the clues, it seems in the end, there will be more questions than answers as to the final moments of Flight 447.
Tags: driving, France, U.S., medication, Dr. Manny Alvarez, anxiety, heights, flight, Brazil, sedative, aviophobia, fear of flying, Miracle on the Hudson, claustrophobia, acrophobia, Air France Flight 447, airplane, plane crash, flying, obsessive compulsive disorder, car accident, fatality, pilot, crew, sweaty palms, racing heart, take off, landing, wings, sky, probability, statistics, NTSB, enclosed spaces, vulnerability, panic attack, contintenal connection flight 3407, Clarence NY, tragedy, Atlantic Ocean, control, flight simulator
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When will the bridge to Hawaii be completed?
realistic fear is not about loss of control. irrational fear is.
realistic fear is:
1. knowing that an accident in the air is Much Worse than one on the ground.
2. knowing that airplanes are a War Target. my car isn’t.
3. knowing that my really, really cheap ticket funds maintenance.
4. knowing that actuarial tables show “miles traveled” is an inadequate measure.
“minutes of exposure” is an apples-to-apples comparison. in other words….
how many minutes On The Highway vs. minutes In The Air? using that,
injuries are much higher with cars, deaths are just about equal for air.
5. finally, one should compare ticket-based ground travel to ticket-based air.
if one buys a ticket to ride or fly, then air travel, in terms of Death is Worse.
The fear is real and uncontrollable. I am usually a xanax (or whever tranquilizer I can get from my doctor) and gin person as soon as I arrive at the airport and continue the gin in-flight. I have found that a little “herb” before leaving home helps quite a bit as well. However, I have not boarded an airplane since 2000. The turbulence, no matter how little it is, unnerves me. I have been on a few very, very turbulent flights, travel overseas and in the US, but I still can no longer put myself on an airplane.
This fear has now been reinforced and renewed even more…I have family and friends traveling from Sicily and Germany next week for a visit. Needless to say, all I do is worry about their flights.
I think another reason is because if you are involved in a plane crash, the likelihood of death is near 100%, whereas if you are involved in an car accident, the likelihood of death is less than 1%. Its not so much the crash, but the survivability of the crash that scary to some.
It’s silly to argue the odds of dying in a plane vs. a car. As with many issues facing people every day, they ignore the more pertinent details. In this case, survivability. Your chances of surviving an airline accident are far worse than your chances of survival of a car wreck. Thousands of people survive automobile accidents every day….not so for airline accidents…”Miracle on the Hudson” notwithstanding.
I am one of those fearful flyers. I really hate it. I am currently living in Belgium (my husband is on a military assignment) and don’t know if I’ll ever get back to the USA! I barely made it here. I hope there is a QM2 transatlantic crossing happening when we are due to leave. I honestly don’t know if I can get on a plane again, especially over the ocean. I pray there are no family emergencies in the next year that will require me to board a plane. I get sick and dizzy just thinking about it. It is causing me a great deal of stress
I have been a frequent flyer for many years and still I have anxiety, not because I’m scared of flying itself, but because I have a worked for a large corporations. Knowing how large corporations tend to act during economic downturns, they tend to exploit every possible financial situation to make their bottom lines appear as attractive as possible to their shareholders\investors. Airlines are no different and I know for a fact many if not most outsource critical maintenance functions to organizations and companies that claim they have all required certificates and maintenance personnel who are also certified. I cannot trust any company that thinks so little of their customers that they outsource such critical functions. This is a major contributor to my anxiety around flying. Also, you may have heard that some USA regional air carriers hire pilots at a starting wage as low as $20K per year. With that in mind – there is no way I can feel comfortable on a commuter airline or feeder that has that kind of pay plan nor can I feel good about who is up front. Would you want a surgeon to operate on you if you knew they made $20,000 a year and had a night job doing something else to make ends meet? Not to mention what I perceive is the rent-a-cop mentality of some of the TSA agents at the airport check in locations. It all adds up to me, a multi-million mile flyer not having any faith in the entire system from start to finish.
It’s been several years ago that I was in a plane that prepared for a “crash landing”, we were given demos on how to prepare and we were told to get in position. for impact. It took 20 mins. to return to the original airport but we did land safely and it was the softest landing I had ever been in. We had to be pulled into the platform due to a malfunctioning landing gear. It took me 2 years before I flew again….. today, I turned around when I was half way to the airport because I was having a melt down. I could not bring myself to go to the airport let alone to think of flying and having to change flights. I had been anxious all week and just the thought of flying puts me makes me jittery. My physician prescribes Xanax for flying but it didn’t seem to help this time. I’ve heard all the arguments about how safe flying is and there is nothing to be scared of but when you have this fear it is so hard to overcome. I believe God is in control but I just cannot help this fear I have. I feel so guilty about it and so ashamed too.