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About the Fear of Flying - Causes of Fear |
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The most common cause of a fear of flying is a perceived 'bad flight' experience, but it’s true to say that this is more likely to be a perception rather than a true account of the actual flight. It’s common to hear from anxious fliers that the aircraft they have been travelling in has dropped thousands of feet. Whilst this is clearly untrue, it is nevertheless, reality to the person affected. |
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Turbulence is often quoted as a major cause of a fear of flying, and it has an influence out of all proportion to what actually happens on board. Anxious passengers often believe that the aircraft is in danger during turbulence. There is a widespread feeling that the aircraft is not strong enough to withstand the forces although the truth is quite the opposite. It’s not unreasonable for passengers believe that it’s difficult to control an aircraft during turbulence because of its apparent irregular flight path. However, a simple observation of a glass of water on the tray in front of any passenger would show how little the aircraft is actually moving. | |
For many people the apparent loss of personal control during air travel is a major cause of fear and not surprisingly it affects many intelligent and highly successful people, yet despite that or perhaps because of that, they seem unable to accept that other people have skills upon which they are dependent but they themselves lack. It is vital to your success that if you feel this way that you develop confidence and trust in the skills of pilots, cabin, crew, engineers and Air Traffic Controllers and everyone else involved in commercial flying. | |
Claustrophobia causes a number of fears, however with the fear of flying is particularly acute because, unlike being confined on a bus or train in an aircraft it is not possible to just get off at the ‘next stop’. Normally for a claustrophobic their anxiety can be relieved slightly by opening windows or doors and in almost every other area of life there is some opportunity to change the environment or avoid it altogether. These opportunities are clearly not possible with air travel combined with the demands of modern life. Many people who are unfamiliar with air travel are likely to make many assumptions about aviation and aircraft. They have doubts about how a heavy aircraft can take to the skies, they are subjected to media accounts, which distort the truth, and once on board they are concerned by the noises and sensations on the aircraft all of which go towards a general feeling of insecurity and anxiety. That’s why we’ve included pages of information about these things on this site. Finally, in this short summary of reasons for a fear of flying we must mention parenthood and falling in love. Both of these highly emotional events can influence the ways that we see our lives. When we have the responsibility of children, we naturally feel protective and whilst we may be able to rationalize our own fears on an aircraft, we find it difficult to subject our offspring to any perceived risk. When we are in love, we have so much to lose. Suddenly we become aware of the frailty of our lives. We see more risks, and we exaggerate them. Indeed any significant life event can trigger a fear of flying. See our Glossary - 'Flypedia' |
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