I'm terrified of flying

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Leahnora

I would bring my CD player and a couple of CD's to pass the time but that's me it'll help though (Don't think about the trip) or some puzzle books can help or whatever you're interested in

The Brain

Confront your fear its the only way to get over it.
You're more likely to crash & burn in a car accident on your way to the airport than anything going wrong in a plane.

Numb

Go to your doctor and ask for a pill to calm down. Take the pill right before you board the plane. By the time it takes off you will be in happy land. Or do it the hard way and overcome your fear of heights. Jump off a couple bridges, do roller coasters, go to the top floor on a few skyscrapers and just get used to being way up there. My dad used to be a Iron worker that built sky scrapers, when he 1st started he crawled everywhere and after a few weeks he was able to walk everywhere. Just have to get used to it.

infinate_cold

Skydiving maybe. It would be a direct way to face your fear.

Cruz

Hi Nicolah you have get use to fly, I know isn't easy for you but you need a self confidence.

miso wunderful

there's a greater chance of getting attacked by a shark or being killed by a coconut than dying in a plane crash.... have no fear, have fun!

dennis s

I look at the pilots,usually they're middle aged and they do this every day, so it must be pretty safe.

br@ini@c

face your fears and overcome them. I used to be afraid of flying. The 1st time I got on a plane I went from Dallas to Cambodia. Just tough it out. You are more safe in a plane than you are in a car.

Roasted BumÂ©

The only way is to knock you out trust me.

Yoville Dude

well theres nothing really to be afraid of just pray and tell yourself nothing wil happen. the chances of a plane crashing are very slim

Tom R

First of all Try to take control of your mind practice at home pretend your flying. Now imagine being 25000 feet off the ground. Now remember driving a car is more dangerous. Remember thousands of engineers for many years have worked on these planes making them nearly error proof. They are simply the safest way to travel this day in age

and try bringing a mp3 player with you and closing your eyes for the flight and remember its all in your mind its a weakness you must conquer and without conquering it you will grow only weaker

*Queen* *Bee* *happy*

I have risked so many flyings in my life,i read somewhere that you have to have a good breakfast before you go off and just feel relax,don't think about it.Accidents can happen everywhere.If you have fear,you can't go anywhere.There're more people died on lands than in the air.Just relax.
Good luck and have a nice trip.

callmemigue1

dont stress over this, everyone is afraid of something and it takes alot 2 overcome them. U really want to go so make that ur motivation. Once u overcome it, ur gonna realize how easy that was and wont worrry about it next time. Just dont think about it get on the plane and go to sleep and when ya wake up ull be there. Goodluck getting ova ur fear:)

anupam

I am too, everytime I land it feels a new life you can't do anything about it, I take 300ml of whisky and sleep to avoid worrying till it lands

Aim =]

take something that helps u sleep, then just sleep! lol x

Subbu Bubbly

The September 11th attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the US had great implications. It not only caused more people to be fearful of flying but it also shook the world's economy and caused the airlines industry to go into a slump. Many reputable airlines suffered, triggering bankruptcies in Sabena in Belgium, Swiss Air in Switzerland and Ansett Airlines in Australia. More than 100,000 people in the USA lost their jobs in the airlines related business.

With that in mind, how can I help to contribute to the revival of the airline industry? Many people who have expressed the fear of flying are well founded. I hope I can help to convince the people at large that flying is still safe (barring any more suicidal attempts) The September 11th tragedy will not stop me from flying an aircraft as a pilot nor as a passenger. In fact this has me even more determined to explain and to reassure everyone to come back to flying. It is easier said than done I suppose. How can I explain to people effectively the fear of flying and to convince them how safe it is to fly again.? Well, my mind tells me that it will not be easy in the aftermath of the September 11th attack. I have to write something more about it.

Firstly, let us face the fact of life. About 20 years ago, Boeing made a survey that one out of three person is fearful of flying. That number comes up to about 25 millions people in the USA. Out of these, fifty percent won't fly at all and the other fifty percent fly with difficulty. In January 2002, the CBS News poll figures showed that 2 in every 10 Americans are still 'afraid' to fly and another 3 are 'bothered slightly'. But I was told that if one is afraid to fly, it is difficult to convince one with any statistics. Or is it so?

Overcome Fear with Knowledge

One way to overcome fear is knowledge. Do you know that flying is more than 20 times safer than driving? Do you know that climbing up the stairs in your home is 10 times more dangerous than flying? Do you know that Dr Arnold Barnett - the Professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came out with this result, " A traveler in the First World Airline who took one flight a day will only encounter a fatal accident after flying for 31,000 years.." Okay, okay the odd seems unbelievable after the September 11th attack! But the fact remains true. Remember that everything we do in life has a certain amount of risk involved. Flying is just another risk but it happen to be a smaller risk than almost anything we do in a day. I will elaborate more on statistics later on.

Fear of flying is often made worst by great flying disasters that are widely reported in all the medias. Disaster like the Concorde crash in Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris can trigger great fears among the traveling public. Psychological experts say that the effect of the hijackings and the attacks on the New York Twin Towers and the Pentagon is likely to aggravate the situation even more.

Of course, the attacks in New York and Washington have caused many to fear flying in the short term but I don't think this would last for long. Memories are short and most people would get back to flying pretty quickly. What about those who were fearful of flying before these tragic events?

Air accidents are usually great news for the medias. Motor vehicle accidents causing death are a non event even though this form of ground travel is 21 times more dangerous than air travel. Even an air accident involving a small airplane piloted by John Kennedy Junior dominated the newspapers and news broadcast for days. Gory images of air crashes in TV and closed-in images of grieving families are bad business for air travel. This often trigger more fears about flying.

The estimated 25 million fearful or anxious fliers in the US have cause to be apprehensive. But one has to differentiate between crashes due to terrorism and one due to the safety of the airplane. Data from the National Transportation Safety Board indicated nil fatalities in 1998 for all US commercial flights. If that statistic does not calm your fears, think of the this. Data has also shown that it is more dangerous to take a shower in the bathroom or that more people are likely to die from falling in their homes than to get on an airplane.

There are many psychological counselors who have been busily conducting courses to assist people and potential passengers to cope with the fear of flying. That is fine. Most of these Fear of Flying Clinics or related books on fear of flying always recommend, amongst others, that the very fearful flyer meet the Captain of the flight in the cockpit. Since the September 11th attack, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) has come out with a ruling that prohibits passengers from visiting the cockpit at any time. To overcome this problem, instead of the passenger visiting the cockpit to meet the Captain, I will now come to you to explain in this Web Site, everything you want to know about flying, with a hope that it will help to soothe your fears away!

As I have said earlier, one of the most important way of allaying your fear of flying is knowledge. I will briefly discuss fears of flying and then cover more examples later on, mainly related to the Boeing 777.

A passenger's fearful experience

Here is one of one of my experience. One day, a passenger traveling from Johannesburg to Brisbane was on my flight. It was reported to me that he was extremely nervous throughout the journey. He was full of anguish and anxiety in his facial expression The flight attendant noticed his demeanor and asked what was wrong with him. He confessed that he was very fearful of flying, especially when the aircraft encountered turbulence and had to take the anti-depressant drug to calm himself down. The drug did not work very well on him. After being informed by the flight attendant, I then invited him to the cockpit to see if I could do something to calm his fears by explaining to him everything he wanted to know about the flight.

He told me he was a bank executive and had once flew with an Airline in Australia that entered into very severe turbulence. He thought that he was going to die, and vouched that he would never travel with that Airline again. It took me sometime to calm him down as I explained to him the mechanics of flight, the various types of turbulences, the integrity of the Boeing aircraft structure and the capability of the engines in turbulent conditions.

He was very grateful after that and requested to be in the cockpit every two hours for a short duration to calm his nerves during the flight. I obliged and on landing, he apologized for his behavior and told me he was just as normal as anyone else on the ground. I felt good that I was able to calm one passenger that day and made him happy and less fearful of flying. I hope I have cured him permanently. We exchanged business cards and since then, I have not heard from him again.

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Stimulus of Fear

Basically, fear of flying can arise from many stimulus. For example, remembering the experience of a previous flight like the one I mentioned above. Then you can become fearful because you have heard of very tragic stories of previous flying accidents, for instance, the deliberate crash by hijackers of the Boeing 757's and 767's into the World Trade Center in New York on September 11th, 2001.

Fear of flying can also be triggered by panic attack caused by such feeling as being claustrophobic. Then one can become a flying phobic as a result of traveling during a stressful phase of your life.

Other general stimuli that can contribute to fear in an airline passenger inside the airplane can be due to loss of control of emotion, embarrassment in the eyes of fellow passengers, loss of bladder or bowel control, feeling that the airplane would tip over or one would fall through the cabin floor and letting other passengers know one has to visit the toilet. The greatest fear among all these appears to be fear of turbulence which I will elaborate later.

From statistics, 35 % of the fearful flyers, fear the airplane would crash. They are extremely vigilant. They would imagine that every little noise, vibration or a bump like the retraction of landing gears would lead to the airplane to crash. The main reason for feeling thus is that they are totally out of control of the situation.

Casey's Story

Casey is a close friend of mine but is not convinced that flying is safe. Here is his story.

"One day I was flying in a Boeing 737 and we entered into severe turbulence for a long while. There were no announcement made as to the cause of the turbulence except the standard, ' Ladies and Gentlemen, please return to you seats and fasten your seatbelts' . I was totally petrified and waited for the Captain to say something. None was forthcoming. I was very tensed and was still grabbing onto the seat belts very tightly, waiting and anticipating for the for the next bump to come before the aircraft finally landed. It was the most frightening flight of my life and I have no intention of ever flying again unless it is absolutely necessary."

I had to convince Casey that firstly, he was afraid of turbulence because he thought the airplane he was flying in would not be able to withstand the bumps of the turbulent ride. So in fact he was fearful of the integrity of the structure of the airplane. In reality, during the design of the airplane structure, every conceivable angles were taken into consideration and the designers had anticipated as to what would be the worst possible turbulent force that could break the airplane structure. That breaking force would be at least five times of the force that he felt in a normal turbulent flight. From the test rig, a Boeing 777 wing was stressed and bent up to 22 feet before it came apart

Turbulence

Second

Footie Princess

CLOSE UR EYES

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I'm terrified of flying - help!?