WHEN airlines began installing “tail-cams” and streaming live footage of flights to passengers, the idea was to offer a “God’s eye” view of the heavens. It is, indeed, a divine sight, but for those with a fear of flying also utterly terrifying. On a recent transatlantic flight, an anxious gentleman sitting next to Gulliver was glued to tail-cam for eight hours straight, scrutinising the plane (and flight speeds) for any signs of imminent mechanical failure—fearing, perhaps, that a lapse in his vigil could doom us all. It was only upon docking at the gate that his hands unclenched from the armrest and his ordeal came to an end.
Around 2-3% of people in developed countries have clinical aviophobia: an intense and irrational fear of flying. Symptoms include increased blood pressure, hyperventilation, gastric upset and panic attacks. Sufferers are usually aware that air travel is one of the safest forms of transportation, but are unable to shake off anxieties about crashing, or losing self-control. Their severe discomfort is shared by passengers with claustrophobia or post-traumatic stress disorder, who may not necessarily qualify as aviophobes, but still dread a ten-hour flight in economy. And then there are many flyers—as many as a quarter of Americans, by some estimates—who simply feel uneasy about the idea of a 100-tonne metal canister hurtling through the stratosphere at several hundred miles an hour. When turbulence is tossing you from side to side, it is hard to be cheery about the physics of the aerofoil phenomenon or historically low fatality statistics. Even the crew, in spite of their external poise, are known to get the jitters: a survey of 1,000 European deck and cabin staff suggested that nearly 10% feel anxious on a monthly basis.
At worst, aviophobia can be crippling; at best, it is highly inconvenient. Just ask Dennis Bergkamp, a footballer from the Netherlands dubbed “the non-flying Dutchman”, who gained contractual permission to miss far-flung away matches, or Whoopi Goldberg, an American actor, who used to tour America by bus. Such avoidance is financially punitive, to passengers and carriers. A research paper published three decades ago suggested that fear of flying cost American airlines 9% of their revenues, or $1.6 billion in 1978’s money. And the damage is not just pecuniary. Attempting to drive the length of a typical non-stop flight is 65 times more dangerous. More than 300 Americans are thought to have died as a result of abandoning air travel and taking to the roads after the 9/11 attacks.
