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Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
131–140 of 266 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#132I’ve become terrified of flying over the last year or so. I know planes are over engineered and essentially never crash from even the most severe turbulence. My fear is specifically around placing my life in the hands of a random pilot who may either be suicidal or “zone out” at a critical moment. The GermanWings flight and (very likely) MH370 were brought down by suicidal pilots. There have been other incidents as well. The AirFrance flight a few years ago was brought down by the flight crew spiraling into a panic. Plane designs are already crazy safe and get safer all the time. Pilots scare me. I can’t wait until we have some kind of pilot less plane.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#133Tricks I use:
1. Think about how many takeoffs and landings happen every minute around the world, and how little you hear about plane crashes. Similar to your random trick.
2. Investigate all plane crashes in the last 20 years and understand if they can happen again today.
3. Understand that everything on a plane has a backup. EVERYTHING.
4. Understand that you WILL die from other things at a 99.999% probability and that you should spend your CPU cycles avoiding them instead. More people died of sickness caused from flights than from actually flying.
5. Understand that turbulence is COMPLETELY natural and has nothing to do with crashing. It is almost impossible to crash from turbulence. (see here: https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-plane-crashes-due-to-tur...). You are more likely to crash from turbulence due to pilot error who doesn't know what to do in the case of turbulence, compared to the turbulence itself causing the crash.
6. Choose the best airlines, those that you know they will do whatever they can to increase maintenance of airplane parts (which can incur material fatigue over time).
7. Think about the fact that people who fly for a living (e.g. flight attendants and commercial pilots) don't live less than you. Well, minus the sickness stuff.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#134Personally, when I fear things (like every time I fly) I have this very simple mechanic for dealing with it: welcome what's coming.
In the case of flying, I accept that these could very well be the last moments of my life and it's too late to get off/turn back now and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit there and spend my final moments suffering and wincing in fear. I relax my body, take a deep breath and try to suck in every bit of life within me - I enjoy myself and everything around me in the moments before (in my head) the plane crumples into a smouldering wreck. Hell, what an experience - to die! You only get to do that once. Twice if you're lucky! You might as well embrace it with open arms! I turn my excitement into curiosity. I rationalise that I'm here now, and I've trusted this pilot with my life, and if it was a mistake, so be it. What will be, will be. Que sera, sera!
Once I put myself in this mindset everything becomes a breeze.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#135I resumed flying after 20 years on the ground a while ago and of course discovered that I have a fear of it.
What helped me was the sight of the shuttle driving us from the airport to the city almost rear-ending somebody who cut it off. I realized then that aside from spacecraft the machines we use are highly dependable - it's the interaction with other people that's the most dangerous thing.
Currently the moment we're in the air I'm calm, but there's still some residue anxiety during takeoff and landing.
I don't fly a lot now though because the level of comfort comparing to a car is abysmal.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#136I regularly fly on intercontinental lines over the Atlantic. Sometimes a strong turbulence happens while we are somewhere in the middle over the ocean. I usually afraid there's no emergency airport thousands of miles around us literally.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#137My fear subsided somewhat when I realised that a modern passenger plane costs at least $100 million - circa $400 million for an A380.
The owners, insurers and operators do not want to risk that investment.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#138Personally, when I fear things (like every time I fly) I have this very simple mechanic for dealing with it: welcome what's coming. In the case of flying, I accept that these could very well be the last moments of my life and it's too late to get off/turn back now and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit there and spend my final moments suffering and wincing in fear. I relax my body, take a deep breath and try to suck…
I have found the same mindset to be comforting for me on planes. I am able to let go of control, because to be honest, I wouldn't be able to stop the plane from crashing even if there was a real danger.
Better not to worry about something I have no chance of controlling.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#139> I read that the odds of a plane crash is 1 in 1.2 million, That's a very misleading figure. In 2017 there were zero (read: 0) accident deaths on a commercial passenger jet. That a Turkish cargo jet smashed into a village in Kyrgyzstan doesn't affect me in the slightest. Flying on a jet in the USA had a zero accident death record for over a decade. In this millenium, not counting 9/11, American Airlines Flight 587 i…
While I'd agree that the likelihood is incredibly small, the second paragraph of your comment is incorrect. SWA 1380 happened just ~3 months ago and caused 1 fatality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380
There was also Asiana 214 in 2013, which caused 3 fatalities when landing in SF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214
Aside from those, it also seems disingenuous to exclude turboprops. 49 more deaths happened in America on turboprops during this millennium. That's not an insignificant number.
Re: Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?
#140United used to have a feature called "From the Flight Deck" where you could listen to live radio communications between your pilots and air traffic control. Unfortunately, it's now only available on a few routes and planes: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/... I found it very comforting to listen to it during an entire flight, because you could find out what the pilots of your flight were a…
As a pilot myself, I loved that feature. Too bad they discontinued it, so there is no good reason for me to fly United anymore :)