To never want to get on a plane again?

[TwatMcTwonk]

Just watching coverage of the French air crash
I've always been a nervous flyer, took medication etc and would still be anxious all the way through the flight.

Used to go on holiday as a family, maybe two or three times a year, but I'm seriously thinking I don't think I could physically get on a plane again after all these news reports.

I know, statistically, it's rare to be involved in a plane crash, but I can't shake this awful feeling that it is just happening too often for my liking.

Anyone else feel like this?

No. You are more likely to be run over by a clown on a bicycle than be in a crashed plane.

If it upsets you, don't watch it any more.

I know it's upsetting and there seem to have been a frightening amount of plane crashes in the last 18 months but the odds of you dying in a car crash are far greater.

I realise that's not hugely comforting!

Yep, I feel the same.

I like the line "I have a perfectly rational fear of flying"

But actually if they reported car accidents in the same manner (front page rolling news etc) then you would feel the same about cars. Air travel is very safe - but the awfulness of a tragedy like today makes it hard to remember that.

I try to think: do I want my children to understand and see the world, to travel and have adventures. Yes, I do. So I don't want them to be afraid of the very minute and rare chance that their plane may crash. So, I try to be brave about travel and remember how privileged we are to be able to do it.

I understand OP, I'm a fellow nervous flyer.

No amount of statistics comparing the safety of flying as opposed to driving ,etc can ever make me feel ok about being a mile above the earth in a plane and reports of this kind make me feel physically ill. I feel so awful for the poor passengers and crew, and their families.

I'm booked to go on an Easyjet fearless flyer course in May.

I feel the same, very nervous about flying at the best of times. There seem to have been a lot of crashes recently. Due to fly long haul in the summer, and dreading the fight.

Mmm, no I'd still hop on a plane after this. There are more stories about plane crashes because there are obviously more planes flying around. Like how there's more car crashes now than there were say 50 years ago.

Funnily though, I remember after 9/11 Britain being the only country where people carried on flying as normal whereas there was a decrease in numbers of flights booked in Europe and around the world.

Download "Am I Going Down? " - it's a bloody brilliant app for geeks like me and will reassure all nervous fliers!

Op totally understand.

My dd was involved in a fatal motorway crash and neither she or I can bear to travel on a motorway at night. We are both having help as it's not something I want her to cope with for life.

It's very hard. But we will get there.

I tend to think the people who fly without any fear and can't understand anyone else being scared, or worse take the piss, are pretty stupid really and lack basic imagination.

Apparently even last year with the Malaysian air disaster and the shot down plane it was still statistically the safest year for flying.

bigred, i dont think there even are more crashes now - i remember reading after the MA plane was shot down that no more planes were crashing than usual numbers. It's just rolling news, makes it look more frequent.

I understand anxiety though op.

(If posters are actually that panicky, speak to your gp. My friend can only fly when doped up and gp happy to prescribe)

Yep - I'm with you OP - I am also a very nervous flyer and take medication to get me through a flight (haven't done log haul in years though). We were supposed to be going to Spain twice this year but have cancelled both (for reasons unrelated to fear/safety I should add) and I can't pretend I'm not glad.

Bollocks, forgot the rest of my anxiety paragraph!

I have GAD. Weirdly i am rather serene about flying, happy in the 'knowledge' that any accident that happened would more likely be catastrophic.

YANBU. It's very sobering isn't it? :(

People always trot out the 'safest form of transport' line - but I'm pretty sure there are fewer passenger fatalities in train and bus accidents? And although you're more likely to be killed in a car accident, you're also much more likely to walk away from one than you are from a plane crash. It's that all-or-nothing 'risk' that's so terrifying.

I was never a nervous flyer before last year, tragedies seemed so rare that I was very sure that flying was almost infallibly safe. But now there are so many unexplained incidents that I'm not even convinced that the experts really know as much as you'd like to think.

Beyond yes, I completely agree with that too. Social media and rolling news has changed how everything is reported to the world.

I know exactly how you feel.

I've done a Fear of Flying course, I get drugs from the doctors, I know all the statistics, I've even got a pilot friend who has tried to help, but I am utterly terrified of flying. At the end of the day I'm still 1000s of feet up in the air and the only way is down!

I've always been a nervous flier but several years ago was on a flight where we had to make an emergency landing. Utterly terrifying. DH takes the approach that it's extremely rare for anything to go wrong so massively unlikely for anything like that to happen to us again. I'm more, well it's supposed to be extremely rare and it's already happened once....

Everyone tells me it's irrational, statistically it's the safest form of transport, etc, but then I hear of a plane crash and think "am I really that irrational?".

I feel so sad for the passengers, crew and their families.

I'm a terrible flyer too. It's years since I was on plane, although that is entirely due to lack of funds, not fear of flying.

But it is as another poster said, I really don't want to miss out on things, and feel like it is something I just have to deal with.

I do actually understand how planes fly, it is very logical, and that helps quite a lot.

(And bear in mind that i bet we think of three big crashes in the last year, but actually its over a year since mh370 went missing)

My job is flying and I've never ever felt the least bit worried....until the last couple of years or so.

People always trot out the 'safest form of transport' line - but I'm pretty sure there are fewer passenger fatalities in train and bus accidents? And although you're more likely to be killed in a car accident, you're also much more likely to walk away from one than you are from a plane crash. It's that all-or-nothing 'risk' that's so terrifying.

Yes, I agree too. I'm always told that I'm far more likely to be in a car crash than a plane crash but that doesn't stop me getting in a car.

No it doesn't, but I always think I'm far more likely to survive a car crash than a plane crash. There's just no way out

This is irrational I know, but I'd rather get ferries and boats than planes. I can swim but I can't fly. Of course, I know if a boat goes down in the middle of the sea, my basic swimming abilities aren't going to be much use but there's a way out if that makes sense

I'm also terribly claustrophobic, which really doesn't help

Why now Only1scoop?

YANBU

It seems there's a plane crash every month lately.

I'm due to fly in two weeks and I'm dreading it

I think we, as in humans collectively, probably aren't that good with risk assessment in a way. We really should be more afraid of cars than planes, but we're not. It is similar to the way that my biggest fear for my children is 'stranger danger' when in actual fact I should be far more worried about them being knocked down.

Even when you know the cold hard facts, it is hard to make your brain believe them.

People always trot out the 'safest form of transport' line - but I'm pretty sure there are fewer passenger fatalities in train and bus accidents?

1713 people died in car crashes in Britain last year. The lowest number since records began in 1926 but still a hell of a lot of people.

I work on aircraft and totally understand why people are nervous flyers. It's the amount of people an accident like this involves that causes the sensationalist reaction. Along with news coverage and I think at times an understandable lack of knowledge of what exactly happened and why it puts the fear into people.

In our training we learn what can go wrong, why and how to deal with it. So rather than thinking 'shit another plane has fallen out of the sky' we go through the rational reasons and circumstances as to how and why. The aviation community is speculating that this was a rapid decompression. Decompressions, although uncommon, do happen and most of the time are dealt with by the air crew and go unreported as I consequence came of it. Much like a blown out tyre on the motorway that caused no accident, nor casualties. We don't hear about it in the news, so don't know it happens all the time.

I've heard that courses run by airlines can do wonders and reassure people massively. Of the hundreds and thousands of flights flown in the last couple of years we have heard of 3 in the news. It really is a very small portion.

Whenever I get irrational about flying I remember that the number of people who die each year from smoking in the UK is the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing with no survivors every single day. Puts it into perspective.