Terrified of flying

[Chazzalazza]

Hello, I have flown many times in the past but haven’t since pre pandemic, we ve booked our first holiday with a flight as a family and I am absolutely bricking it. Please how is nobody else as terrified as I am!? What is the secret. A pod flying through the air at the hands of two individuals skill and the good behaviour of all those on board stresses me to the core! What’s the secret to getting over this or dealing with it! I don’t want my kids to feel my anxiety 😩😂😪

I am obsessed with flying, I watch all kinds of plane documentaries, track planes and follow pilots on YouTube. However, even I have a bit of a wobble about safety from time to time. What helps is reminding myself that for pilots and cabin crew flying is just their job.

I live in an area with a high concentration of air crew as we’re about twenty minutes from a major London airport. My neighbours get up, go to work and come home again and again and again, just like I do. They don’t arrive at work expecting something bad to happen, so why should I? :)

I hope you manage to conquer your fears, OP!

My son was invited into the cockpit at the end of our last flight (as the only child on the plane!) to meet the pilots and I think I was more excited than he was 😂

My neighbours get up, go to work and come home again and again and again, just like I do. They don’t arrive at work expecting something bad to happen

Yep, I know reassurance via “stats” doesn’t really work for some people but what you say there might help.

Short haul crew can be doing close to a thousand flights a year, even those doing dedicated long haul well probably over a hundred and if you fly every working day the mindset becomes one of chucking the uniform on and going to work, rather than setting off excitedly to slip the surly bonds of earth.

These days it’s so safe and routine that vast vast majority of crew can go through sometimes multiple decade careers without being involved, or having any close colleagues involved, in a serious incident, let alone an accident at work.

OP - I would recommend telling the cabin crew how you feel.

I didn’t used to be a nervous flyer but after a very turbulent flight a few years ago, I now hate turbulence. (Am fine if the flight isn’t turbulent including on take off and landing)

I now tell the cabin crew this when I board and they always come and reassure me if there’s a bit of turbulence and explain why it’s happening and that it’s nothing to worry about. Hasn’t totally eliminated the fear but does help.

It's crazy out there, always is, zzzzzzzz sound buzzing all the time, pressurised all the time obviously is scary. I come from Nepal, flying in twin-otter flights to the Himalayan airports like Lukla, Jomsom, seriously thought, were I out of my mind? but later on happened, had to accept and move. Really great experience now. You should go against your fear sometimes, try it, and should help.

@norrie007

I don't understand why " pressurised all the time" would be scary..

I think there's sometimes a bit of a misconception that the cabin gets pumped up to high pressure but the reality is the air pressure in the cabin reduces as you climb, the point of the pressurisation system on airliners is to stop it reducing too much..

You can fly unpressurised up to quite high altitudes with the right equipment (e.g. oxygen masks plus in some circumstances maybe more) but I can't see that being too popular with the paying public.

so great! I am glad I reached out here I feel better already, it’s changing that perception, and you’re right it’s a job - I have a friend who worked for emirates for years but she didn’t much help and just said yeah there are few times she thought she was going to die but shrugged it off 😅😅

I am a nervous flyer too, OP. My doctor used to prescribe beta blockers to keep me calm but I can’t take those now because of asthma. Instead. I have a miniature of brandy before the flight (I don’t normally drink so I wince with every mouthful) and that seems to calm me enough.

My DH always tells me it’s safer than driving and on one journey he went through the same rigmarole just as a car shunted into the back of us at a red traffic light! I am still scared though.

I can understand this, I also felt nervous after not having flown for a few years due to Covid. But honestly once we had taken off I was fine, and no nerves for the return flight home. You will be ok OP. Good luck and enjoy your holiday.

I was and still am a nervous flyer but found that flight radar has actually helped ease it! It must be something about seeing the thousands of planes in the air and familiarising myself with the route that I would be flying but it’s worked a bit! Still not great but much better than what I was!

I went from flying without giving it a second thought to terrified and going all the way to southern Spain by train. I borrowed BA’s Flying with Confidence book and it really helped. I realised my fear hadn’t happened randomly. It was at a time of my life of multiple difficulties and bereavements and flying became associated with attending funerals, and arranging care for elderly grandparents abroad. Then on my way to a cousins wedding I was at stanstead on 9/11 and the pictures of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers came up on giant TV screens. That probably compounded things. The BA book helped me understand that and get things back on a more rational footing. I’m now fine with flying.