A few weeks ago, my wife and I boarded the plane at Vancouver International Airport, on our way to Costa Rica. I was flipping through the in-flight magazine, she was watching other passengers mill about, until everyone was in their seats.
The flight attendants closed the doors, checked all overhead compartments, and our plane geared up to pull out of the gate. We made it about 10 feet before the electrical system died.
Yes, died.
The plane hushed and came to a stop. The passengers glanced at each other with obvious surprise. A moment later the captain’s voice crackled over the intercom:
“Uh, yes, it seems our electrical system has conked out on us. But don’t worry folks, this is actually our secondary system, which we only use to taxi in and out of the gate. We don’t use this system in-flight. We’ll just restart the engine and be on our way.”
My wife reached over and clamped her hand around mine. Needless to say, our comfort towards flying did not increase.
Runaway Anxiety
I used to be okay with flying. There was a bit of nausea during takeoff and landing, but otherwise, I never quite let the cold, clammy fingernails of terror trickle down my spine.
But the incident above was not the only one during our trip. All four of our flights experienced complications: from the air-conditioning malfunctioning, to electrical storms, to closed airports, to emergency diversions for refueling.
Could it be we just have bad luck? Not so, I realized, considering Rolf Pott’s described a similar situation in a recent World Hum post:
We started flying in circles. Then the pilot kept coming back on saying, “Another 20 minutes.” Then he said we were running out of fuel so we were going to have to land in Baltimore. In this day and age, when you get these cryptic messages from your pilot, you get a little nervous. We were coming in for a landing in Baltimore and were about 10 feet off the ground when we pulled up again. That was a little freaky.
And consider this sobering statistic reported by Chris Elliot:
Buried in the latest government figures about the airline industry is one number that is bound to fill every air traveler with dread: Complaints are up an eye-popping 77 percent from a year ago.
“In April, the Department received 1,246 complaints from consumers about airline service, up 76.7 percent from the 705 complaints received in April 2006,” it says. “But 4.9 percent fewer than the 1,310 filed in March 2007.”
Flying really has gotten worse.
Statistically Speaking
On the ground, it’s easy to convince yourself the chances of actually dying in a plane crash are slim (1 in 5051).
But in the air, while circling a massive electrical storm, it’s more difficult to stop the vivid imaginings of the plane being ripped apart, the engine falling off, a lighting bolt striking the wing, a gremlin unfastening the doors, etc…
Why do we fear the unlikely causes of death? I previously explored this topic “What You Think Probably Won’t Kill You” and again found it revisited in a recent article by Scientific American.
Basically, the author wrote, psychological science has identified four factors that feed our risk intuitions:
- 1. We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear – With our old brain living in a new world, we are disposed to fear confinement and heights, snakes and spiders, and humans outside our tribe.
- 2. We fear what we cannot control – Behind the wheel of our car, but not in airplane seat 17B, we feel control.
- 3. We fear what is immediate – Smoking’s lethality and the threats of rising seas and extreme weather are in the distant future. The airplane take-off is now.
- 4. We fear threats readily available in memory – If a surface to air missile brings down a single American Airliner, the result will be traumatic for the airline industry. Given the difficulty in grasping the infinitesimal odds of its being (among 11 million annual airline flights) the plane we are on, probabilities will not persuade us. Intuitive fears will hijack the rational mind.
Makes sense. But try as I might, I spent my recent flights with stomach clenched and sweat greasing the palms of my hands. While I was able to fight off complete panic attacks, the journey was far from a pleasant experience.
By the time the planes landed, it would take hours before any sort of relaxation returned. And just the thought of hopping back on a plane is enough to quiver my core.
The Remaining Options
It’s possible you’re in a similar situation. So what are the alternatives? I figure there are three:
I could stop flying. But I love traveling so much, this is not really an option.
I could work on convincing myself that air travel is safer than being on the road, that accidents are rare, and that I lack ability to control the outcome of a flight anyway. Whatever happens, happens. Deal with it.
Or lastly, I could try something I’ve never done before: the wonderful world of anxiety suppressing drugs.
Ian MacKenzie is editor of Brave New Traveler, and co-founder of the blogging community TravelBlogger. Aside from writing, he spends his time exploring the fundamental nature of existence and wishing he did more backpacking.Are you in a similar situation? How have you dealt with the fear of flying?
About the Author
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13 Comments... join the discussion!
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“Dude, you wanna do a Zero G?”
- prelude to the most terrifying 5 minutes of my life, riding in the cockpit of a Cessna in Idaho with a pilot from the Jackass school of aviation.
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everyone has a scare story dont they?
the best one was sitting on the tarmac two days before xmas in london to fly back to aus and its raining + icy and the wings and engine iced over and shutdown right on the runway.. had to get towed into a hanger and they put heated blankets on the wings and engine…. yeah coz it aint colder in the skies and you dont think we were all thinking it would ice up midair and we’d fall like a stone
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pam – glad i’m not alone (especially with that certain irony of being a traveler that hates flying…that’s like a gourmet eater who hates cooking).
tim – now that sounds harrowing.
stu – that situation would certainly leave my blood running cold. i neglected to mention above that i was stuck on the tarmac in dallas during a massive monsoon that blew in just before we took off.
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May I add more scare –
30 mins after a flight took off from Taipei (heading to LA), stewardesses were heading back & forth to a passenger a few rows behind me, then came the captain, and at this time, looking out of my window, I saw a continuous stream of black smoke, their conversation wasn’t that loud for the rest of us to hear but clearly something had failed or was on fire! Over the intercom, the captain announced that a turbine on the wing had to be shutdown and we would have to return to the airport immediately but because the fuel tank was still full, the plane had to go round and round to release some of its load….and that meant another hour on the air! That was some unforgettable experience.↵ -
I too had a similar experience. We actually got down the runway and the front wheel came up off the ground then the plane slowed quickly and the front wheel came back down. The pilot said (in that low pilot voice) “uuuhhhh folks we have a light on up here and we need to find out what it means. So we’re headed back to the gate for a few minutes.”
Wow, really assuring.
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I think your odds of dying on an airline flight are significantly less than 1 in 5051. Private planes are so much more dangerous than airlines that they skew the numbers.
It’s interesting how different people are. I am a complete wuss — I hate speaking in front of people, can’t talk to women worth a damn, never made it off the bunny hill when skiing or completed a mountain bike trail without walking my bike down some steep hill. But when I’m tired I have no trouble sleeping on an airplane, even with a little turbulence. I (and I think this goes for most people) find the actual flight the most relaxing part of the journey — a short period of relative serenity in the otherwise hectic air travel experience.
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Here’s a thought. You could take a few flight lessons – maybe even eventually get your pilot’s license. I used to be tentative about flying, when I was a kid, but I got my pilot’s license at 17 and I’ve been able to relax and enjoy flying ever since. Why? Because now I know what to be afraid of, and what not to be, when it comes to air travel. Knowledge is power.
Plus, flying is a ton of fun when you’re the one in charge.
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thanks for all the comments and suggestions! jeff, you’re right, i thought that number (1 in 5051) seemed quite high. and matt – lessons are a great idea to get over the fear. i guess i don’t travel enough to warrant the time investment, but perhaps in the future… i’ll never say never.
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Two things I’ve done recently that have helped tremendously (aside from the drugs, which are great at the time, but make you too groggy–definitely no good for short hops):
Hypnotherapy- I didn’t believe it would work, but I was open to it. Tried it before my flight over to Egypt and I was a new person. Not an ounce of fear. Of course then I flew Egypt Air and it kicked back in. Now I’m about 50/50 on flights.
Fear of Flying Course- It’s online (http://fearofflyinghelp.com/) and it’s free (no, I’m not affiliated). I downloaded the mp3 to my iPod and I listen to the lessons while I’m freaking out in the air. The captain’s voice and rational explanations help keep me from losing it.
Thanks for the post, BNT! I think a lot of people suffer from this fear, but what can we do? It’s so fun to travel.
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Fear of flying is very natural, and everybody should be be afraid. You do not have any control in the plane. Just think how important is your life for you. If you do not care just fly otherwise ejoý living and forget about flying.
Raff
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Hey!!
I just LOVE to fly and i really wanted to be a pilot. But in Portugal here the pilot lessons are very expensive and the lessons have a lot of difficult maths wich i am not a very good mathematics student unfortunately.
I reaaaaaaally loooove to fly, its so beautifull to be up there, the amazing view and all that…and i dont even bother about turbulence, and i already travelled through turbulence once above Spain and other above the Netherlands. About the subject of “driving feels safer because we control it” well…i have no driving license so the control of the transportation is never mine anyway…
Well i fear death but i am really afraid of slow deaths such as heart or lungs desease. The chance of suffering from a desease for long time, that just absolutely scares me. If i could choose the way to die in the future i would prefer to die fast in a plane crash or something, fast and painless.↵
