Fear of Flying

“There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror”. - Orson Welles

Frequent ‘brave’ air travelers will most likely agree with the first emotion; many of us will vigorously nod our heads to the second! Factually speaking, air travel is one of the safest means of transportation. Statistics reveal that flying is 29 times more safe than driving an automobile! Hard to believe? Believe it!

However, such an encouraging statistic is hardly what is on our minds as we are about to board an aircraft! Many of us are plagued by the fear of flying-it is a normal reaction. This fear stems from the fact that

(1) We are vulnerable and there is no doubt, a chance that an accident might happen.

(2) We are not in control of the situation; we are up there among the clouds between ‘heaven and earth’ entrusting our safety, in all probability, to a total stranger.

What we fail to acknowledge is that aviation accidents are comparatively very few and pilots are (really) very well trained to handle emergencies. We, the passengers, on the other hand, have no such training; consequently, we let our imagination run riot and allow fear and anxiety to control us.