Nervous (very) flyer advice
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 52
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From: Near Gatwick
I think that the best piece of advise on this thread for the nervous flyer is to avoid threads like this, even though it was started by someone asking for advise.
Photos of crashed planes and recommendations for the best place to sit during a cartwheeling crash, a head-on or if there is a fire ?? !!
I wouldn't say I was nervous, more just apprehensive and I read such threads thinking I might find something helpful or at least some sympathy.
Was this an off the wall attempt at being helpful or people just taking the mick ?
Photos of crashed planes and recommendations for the best place to sit during a cartwheeling crash, a head-on or if there is a fire ?? !!
I wouldn't say I was nervous, more just apprehensive and I read such threads thinking I might find something helpful or at least some sympathy.
Was this an off the wall attempt at being helpful or people just taking the mick ?
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,302
Likes: 0
From: N. Spain
Photos of crashed planes and recommendations for the best place to sit during a cartwheeling crash, a head-on or if there is a fire ?? !!
I wouldn't say I was nervous, more just apprehensive and I read such threads thinking I might find something helpful or at least some sympathy.
Was this an off
the wall attempt at being helpful or people just taking the mick ?
I wouldn't say I was nervous, more just apprehensive and I read such threads thinking I might find something helpful or at least some sympathy.
Was this an off
the wall attempt at being helpful or people just taking the mick ?
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
From: Planet Earth
Ex-nervous flyer
I had to deal with fear of flying after a very bumpy flight from the Canary islands to Germany about 10 years ago. There were turbulences all the way, and i was nearly feared to death. I'm sure i annoyed a lot of other passengers nearby because at every little bump i groaned and moaned and was about to cry WE WILL ALL DIE! 
Obviously i never wanted to board a plane again. After that i found a website were pilots explain the noises and movements of the aircraft and all the safety standards and answered a lot of my questions. As a result i became highly interested in the art of flying, and i even try to read "Stick and rudder" at last. Even if i don't understand everything, it is all very fascinating to me, and my fear of flying was gone. I still don't like to be pressed for hours in a narrow economy seat with hundreds of other people, but that's a different problem.
Obviously i never wanted to board a plane again. After that i found a website were pilots explain the noises and movements of the aircraft and all the safety standards and answered a lot of my questions. As a result i became highly interested in the art of flying, and i even try to read "Stick and rudder" at last. Even if i don't understand everything, it is all very fascinating to me, and my fear of flying was gone. I still don't like to be pressed for hours in a narrow economy seat with hundreds of other people, but that's a different problem.
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
From: UK
As someone who became a very nervous flyer after being on a plane that had an engine failure, I'm afraid that the only true cure is to fly. The more you do it, the more you see how professional the crews are, the more reassured you become. Even when it happened to me, the crew were perfectly calm and professional, and landed the plane back where we had taken off from perfectly (of course). My only mistake was to decline the offer of a seat on a later plane to the original destination and take the train instead (it was a domestic flight so this was entirely practicable). It took me two years to get on a plane again. With hindsight, it's like falling off a horse - you should get straight back on.
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 17,701
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From: Reading, UK
One word.... AF447.
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 543
Likes: 15
From: North West UK
at Paxboy
Over 40 years of flying (although not as many flights as you): -
2 go arounds - one because the trolleys weren't stowed in time and one because the plane was too high in the approach.
No engine failures;
no rejected take offs;
one return to the airport after 20 minutes when the NLG doors failed to close properly.
2 go arounds - one because the trolleys weren't stowed in time and one because the plane was too high in the approach.
No engine failures;
no rejected take offs;
one return to the airport after 20 minutes when the NLG doors failed to close properly.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
The fact that there are (obviously) some accidents where everyone on board is killed does not negate the proposition that, in general, whether you live through a survivable accident (or not) may depend on where you are sitting.
The fact that passengers are forward facing and only have lap belts has a significantly greater impact on the sheer extent of the injuries you will sustain upon impact than where you sit (there is a reason cabin crew sit facing rearwards with three point harnesses, and the RAF and other militaries transitioned to rear facing seats with three point harnesses many years ago).
Last edited by mixture; 27th June 2013 at 13:39.
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 17,701
Likes: 2,046
From: Reading, UK
Its is the largest piece of bull excrement in the world to say it makes a difference where you sit.
In accidents where significant numbers of passengers have died, but others have survived (e.g. Manchester, Tenerife, Sioux City, etc, etc) you would expect the survivors to have been randomly seated throughout the cabin, because the chances of surviving vs dying were the same for every seat row ?
That's
Joined: Aug 2002
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From: Earth
In accidents where significant numbers of passengers have died
(a) The risk of actually being involved in such an accident is very small indeed.
(b) A large number of safety related enhancements have occurred that were not in place all those years ago.
Even if you do sit in the back next to the toilets, there remains the very real possibility of you suffering significant injuries as a result of lap belts and forward facing seats than there is of you sitting in seats further forward.
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 17,701
Likes: 2,046
From: Reading, UK
The problem with quoting historical accidents that occurred decades ago is that the world and technology has moved on since.
But we still have accidents (obviously) and more to the point those still include events where some passengers die and others survive depending on where in the aircraft they were fortunate/unfortunate enough to be seated.
This certainly wasn't "decades ago":
According to the investigation report, those who survived had all escaped through the LH overwing emergency exits.
Most of those who died were in the forward cabin - tell them it didn't make any difference where they had been sitting.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
But we still have accidents (obviously) and more to the point those still include events where some passengers die and others survive depending on where in the aircraft they were fortunate/unfortunate enough to be seated.
You are going to die at some point. You are not going to have any control over the time or method of your eventual demise, nor is your family, nor is your chosen symbol of faith (should you have one). One day, you will die.
Life is all about compromises.
In the grand scheme of things of everything that could possibly go wrong on board an aircraft, there are bigger and better things to worry about than where you are going to sit. Sit where you want to sit, end of story. Left, right, front, back .... sit where you fancy sitting, not where you think you should sit because you might possibly - despite the odds being already stacked against you with front facing seats and lap belts - survive a crash that you are, in all honestly, unlikely to experience in your lifetime.
Flying remains the safest form of transport out there, and incidents where people die are very, very rare indeed if you compare the number of such incidents to the number of flights each and every day.
You are far more likely to die of a medical condition of some description than be involved in an aircraft incident, let alone an incident that gets you anywhere near contemplating your imminent death.
Look at the bigger picture and put your fears in context.
Last edited by mixture; 28th June 2013 at 12:20.
Paxing All Over The World
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 10,842
Likes: 328
From: Hertfordshire, UK.
All very true mixture but that is not going to help the nervous pax to fly... The OED:
phobia
· n. an extreme or irrational fear of something.
– DERIVATIVES phobic adj. & n.
Rational thinking does not work with a phobia.
phobia
· n. an extreme or irrational fear of something.
– DERIVATIVES phobic adj. & n.
Rational thinking does not work with a phobia.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
Rational thinking does not work with a phobia.
The correct answer is of course to encourage professional psychiatric assistance.
Otherwise you might want to try something like the BA "Flying With Confidence" courses (see here), despite the rather odd choice of banner image they use on their website that would probably give you a fear of flying in its own rights....
Last edited by mixture; 28th June 2013 at 13:18.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
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From: Earth
... While being groped by a man in a dark blue jacket. That is it looks like a man, but anything is possible,
That is what I meant by "probably give you a fear of flying in its own rights...." PAXboy
Last edited by mixture; 29th June 2013 at 23:24.
Paxing All Over The World
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 10,842
Likes: 328
From: Hertfordshire, UK.
I don't know anything more than is here: Virgin Atlantic Airways - Popup
but they might be useful for some folks.
but they might be useful for some folks.
