The best way to fly is by train.
--Jackie Gleason
I'm holding this plane up by sheer willpower.
--Ronald Reagan
I have a couple of drinks before, a couple of drinks during
the flight--and then sit there and suffer.
--Bob Newhart
If you are afraid to fly, you are not alone. As many as forty million Americans, and untold millions worldwide, are afraid of flight to some degree.
Layne Ridely, author of White Knuckles: Getting Over the Fear of Flying, states that "twenty-five million Americans are so afraid to fly that they make every effort not to do it at all." About fifteen million "fly if they have to, but are any-where from uncomfortable to utterly panicked the whole time."
According to a Boeing Company study published in 1980, one out of every six American adults is afraid to fly and would rather do just about anything other than board an aircraft. For them, even just thinking about flying can bring on a sudden sweat, a racing heart, and a seemingly irresistible urge to escape.
The problem with aviaphobia, apart from its unpleasant symptoms, is that those who suffer from it are at a distinct disadvantage in today's world. Air travel is often essential to one's career and to one's personal relationships. Some aviaphobics find ways to cope. For example, CBS television football commentator John Madden travels from assignment to assignment either by train or by his own bus.
However, flying phobia can be cured with appropriate therapy. Reed Wilson, a clinical psychologist and cofounder of Achieving Flight, reports that sixteen or seventeen of the twenty people who attend one of his clinics are able to board a flight at the end of the program. "Of the remaining three people," says Wilson, "two eventually fly."
Truman Cummings, the founder of Freedom from Fear of Flying, cites a study showing that 88 percent of those who have participated in his seminars have since flown successfully. Pilot Fran Grant, cofounder of the Fear of Flying Clinic, based in San Mateo, California, cites a success rate of 95 percent.
What makes these programs work? There is no simple answer, because every phobic person is unique. Here are some approaches aviaphobics have found helpful:
Audiotapes: Some fearful fliers use cassette taps before boarding, during the flight, or both. One such tape, Overcoming Fearful Flying, by Capt. T. W. Cummings, who is mentioned above, is a ninety-minute presentation that addresses the rational and irrational fears associated with flying (available from Simon & Schuster Sound Ideas). In another program, offered through the SOAR (Seminars on Aeroanxiety Relief) tape series, pilot Tom Bunn seeks to counter fear with fact. He points out, for example, that one's chances of being murdered on the ground (1 in 133) are far greater than of
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