Fear and lots of it.

I hate flying. Scares me s**tless. I realize that this is irrational and, yes, I do believe in the laws of physics. I have gotten the whole spiel about safest mode of travel, blah, blah, blah, your rational words of wisdom fall on deaf ears. I just don't trust mechanics, no offense to mechanics, but I just don't believe you can really keep track of so many parts without failing at some point.

Without exception, every time I confess this fear to someone they immediately tell me their worst flying experience. Once someone told me about the engine of their plane falling off. That's just mean. I would have preferred a swift kick to the shin; it would have less long term effects on my psyche.

The problem is: I love to travel. Give me the opportunity to go somewhere, anywhere, and I am all over it. So meeting in Chicago? I'm there. I'll just be the person whose gripping the arm rest so hard her knuckles are white. I think the stress is taking years off my life, but the many glasses of sangria and wine once I arrived is helping me feel a lot better.

Comments

[Gordon Watts]

I can't tell you how completely I agree! Next time, look around and find a pilot dead-heading somewhere. The plane will be bouncing up and down, pitching from side to side, and there they are, fast a sleep. Jerks. :-)

[Raymond]

Isn't the probability of the earth being hit by a large meteor greater than the probability of dying in an airplane crash? If not, I'm sure its close. I've been flying my whole life--my mother used to work for an airline, so I always flew free as well :) Every time I think the plane will crash, I relax, and say to myself: "If its my time to die, then that's it, at least I'm happy with the life I've lived until now." Morbid, maybe, but the calm of knowing I live every day as much as possible makes the thought of accidental death all the less terrifying. Another way to get over your fear is to take flying lessons! Good luck!

[Dan Martinez]

A guy I used to work with told me about an eventful aborted flight he had -- out of Ithaca, New York, I think -- many years ago. His girlfriend was asleep in the seat next to him when the plane sort of lurched and started losing altitude. The pilot announced that they had a problem, and that it was under control, but that cabin pressure was falling and they were going to have to turn back. Shortly after that, the oxygen masks dropped out of their overhead compartments. My coworker's girlfriend slept through the lurch, and the annoucement, but woke up just after the masks had deployed.

I decided that I had just heard a strong candidate for "worst possible way to wake up, ever" -- on a plane with an oxygen mask dangling in your face, and no idea how the hell it got there.

I recommend listening to Henry Rollins's "The Boxed Life", or at least the bit where he talks about his flight anxieties -- it will probably not cure your fear, but it will at least give you the comfort of knowing that you have amusing company.

[John]

You are the cutest scientist I have seen in my life!

[Turbulence]

Thank you for that little story. I nearly lost my head with all of the laughing. That's so funny that person telling you that their engine fell off! Oh my god! And the swift kick to the shin! So very funny. Keep it up. :)

[Bruce]

I have never flown. Same reason. I have been fixing things since I was 4 years old, my go cart back then. I still fix things, only now I am computer sciences graduate. But you are right, this will help your fears, mechanics miss things all the time, and now that I am in the information systems side I see all the flaws there as well.

Any way I have learned to accept that we all gotta go sometime and the odds of a plane crashing are on the side of the passengers, so I will be flying sometime soon. If I see a breath holding, arm chair grippig, wide eyed co-assenger I will say high.

[marko]

btw, i love yahoo ;)

[bailasola]

Thank you for that little story. I nearly lost my head with all of the laughing. That's so funny that person telling you that their engine fell off! Oh my god! And the swift kick to the shin! So very funny. Keep it up. :)

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