Fear of flying. It's not silly. Really.

[Tony Ramirez]

If I ever have to do it even alone to meet friends in other states I will do it just to meet them. I will not let my fear let me concor me. I will fly on a commercial plane which I know is safe. However I refuse to ever fly on those smaller propeller planes that so many famous people died on.

 

[NB79]

I too get a bit of fear when in planes, but supposedly is the safest way to travel, more so than trains ans ships i think, you are in more danger on the street or with a car. I'm used to stay at home, and going out it gives a bit of fear you don't know what a lunatic bad driver is going to do. At least pilots are trained and are i think responsible.

 

[saturnv]

It is counterintuitive, but obsessively reading about air crash disasters has made me feel even better about commercial aviation.

This series covers many crashes with the causes of each crash in detail along with what changes have been made as a result to improve safety. It can be seen that over time safety has dramatically improved to the point that a great many things have to go wrong all at once for a plane to crash. It is now very unlikely. Admiral Cloudberg series

If you know reading about why planes have crashed won't help you, ignore what I said. I am posting this in case there are more people like me out there that would be interested and possibly comforted.

 

[Misty Avich]

Strangely the less likely something is of happening, the more I worry about it happening.

 

[Tom]

What you have there my friend is a Phobia.

Phobia

"A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. " (wiki)

Nothing unusual really. Many many people have them and on just about anything you can imagine, from common ones like flying or spiders to rare ones like fear of seeing people's exposed knees.

I have had several, including flying, which was rather inconveinent seeing I was in the Air Force for 20 years. I just used the power thru via raw will power method as well as little ritual I developed where I rang up God and said I might be dropping by shortly. Another service member I knew used sedatives he got from the clinic. They understood. Happens all the time.

Since anxiety is very prevelent among autistics I would not be surprised if phobias are more common among us, but I haven't looked it up to see if that has been established.

If you really want to go, you might just do it and sweat it out. Even if you don't give statistics much creedence they still are heavily in your favor. Probably something like 500,000 (or more) chances you make it to 1 you don't. Look into a sedative med with your doctor. Take a bus or train.

 

[Magna]

I don't like flying for many reasons in addition to the actual flying in the air itself. Airports are very busy places, lots of germs, sensory overload, etc.

However the times I've flown I've had a certain level of comfort or at least a certain level of peace in accepting that when I get on a plane I have zero control over it. I've taken it to an extreme that actually helps me in what others might think is macabre thinking: I think to myself: "I will be completely helpless on this plane. Therefore when I walk on board even though the likelihood is remote, I might die on this plane. If I did, there's literally nothing I could do about it." < In essence, I make peace with the fact that IF the plane were to go down, I'd be going down with it, without question. Sort of a "I chose to go on this plane. I accept my fate because there is literally no other alternative."

I've never gone skydiving, but I would imagine those that do have to "make peace" with the fact that if something goes wrong, they'd almost assuredly die.

 

[Jeff T]

When the plane first zooms up off the runway, I'm sure my blood pressure rises for a bit.
But I'm not fearful of flying! I'm fearful of crashing.

 

[Harmonie]

I'm a bit nervous about flying.

There was a nearly two decade period of my life where I didn't ever fly. My first flight after that period being just under a couple of years ago. Late last year I flew to check out the state I'm moving to, to see if it's really for me. I kinda hope to not fly for a while. I'll be in a moving van to make the move instead of flying. But if I have to move out of country, there'll be no avoiding that, and long amounts of time over the sea is not something I've ever experienced... Ugh.

My very first flight we landed in a tornadic storm after the warning cleared. The turbulence was strong and very scary for me. Certainly didn't make the best first impression on me.

The thought of being in the sky alone is scary to me. The technology is amazing, certainly, but I get scared.

On the flights late last year I remember getting the most anxious about the silliest things like if I didn't hear the wheels drop before landing I started freaking out (internally. I didn't show it!). All of the landings were safe, of course. But I noticed most in these most recent flights that landings themselves feel a bit out of control and that didn't help my anxiety everytime we landed. I breathed a sigh of relief everytime the plane got back to a steady speed on the ground.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I've never gone skydiving, but I would imagine those that do have to "make peace" with the fact that if something goes wrong, they'd almost assuredly die.

The survival rate with both the main and reserve parachutes failing is surprisingly high. Of course the sample is very small since actual double failures are so rare. Most skydiving accidents result from not following safety procedures, which makes the risk very controllable.

 

[Tony Ramirez]

With all the instances happening with the Boeing plans now I am glad I am not flying. I have no plans on ever flying. Let my friends take their chance traveling in a metal tube in the sky. I always worry every time if they will make it there and back. I am staying in Brooklyn. I heard nothing about a state wide church retreat anyway and I was kicked out my friends local on. I am staying local. Let everyone risk their lives in the sky with their only escape is the hard ground to death. No thanks.

 

[Levitator]

I was personally gaslighted about 9/11 back in the US, sent a letter from an airfield requesting my personal information, claiming they were previously used by airline hijackers for training, as if that weren't a non-sequitur, and then later, just as my life went all Plato's cave and supernatural, I encountered an airline engine failure and emergency landing, an event which I interpret as having been signed by God, since the weather was utterly strange and bizarre. I take it to mean someone is babbling on about the worst terrorist attack in the US since the Civil War, and then God himself is pointing back at them, so I follow God's example, and point right alongside him.

 

[Levitator]

So, anyway, I stay away from airline travel because there are some lunatics on this earth.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I have to try not to snicker when grown adults admit they have a phobia of clowns. And not just evil clowns like Pennywise or the Joker, but funny clowns, too. But for years if someone even mentions vomiting my heart rate will increase. Emetophobia is the worst. It's whole reason why I've never gone on a plane because motion sickness. I'm actually more afraid of motion sickness than I am of the plane crashing or even terrorists, even though that's also terrifying. And even if I didn't get sick someone else might, and nothing good will come out of it, no pun intended.