Not the book by Erica Jong, but real fear. After the Air France crash I have it even worse. And it was pretty bad to begin with. It is just one of those things I have always hated and always dreaded. At one stage (when I was about 19) it got so bad that the thought of getting on a plane would ruin the prospect of anything I had to look forward to once I got to where I was going. In fact when we first thought about moving to Abu Dhabi, one of the things on my ‘disadvantages’ list was the fact that unless I was going to Oman, leaving the country would invariably involve a plane. Unlike France where you can get most places in Europe on a train.
Happily I have got over a lot of my fear. But since this latest crash it has come back, if to a lesser extent. Actually it came back when we flew from Ireland to London on my recent European shopping trip. There was horrendous turbulence. And then when we went to land the plane lurched horribly from side to side before we touched down. I thought I was a gonner. Everyone else in the group was so hungover they didn’t really care. For once I wished I had stayed up drinking all night.
This latest episode has freaked me out. The thought of just dropping from the sky with more than 200 people to a murky death is just too awful. That feeling of total powerlessness and terror would just be my idea of total hell. I mean in a lot of situations there is something you can do, or at least try to do. If you are falling out of the sky your options are limited.
The bad news is we fly to London next week. I am already nervous about the flight, however much I am looking forward to getting there. Maybe I should invest in a copy of Erica Jong’s book (which I first read about a zillion years ago) for the flight and try to think about something else….
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009
Is my memory playing tricks? Have I imagined that dinner a few years ago in the Languedoc when a party of well-travelled journalists-writers rolled out statistics and had fun at my expense when I said I had never taken a plane because of a fear of flying?
Stop worrying. It won’t make any difference.
Bon voyage quand même
Jacques
I’m sure I would have stuck up for you. But as I said, it hasn’t actually stopped me from flying, I just hate it. As Rupert says “the trouble with flying is, you’re fine until you’re not.”
I will keep you posted on progress next week.
Hx
Think of Leonard Cheshire VC and all he did with his life – after Bomber Command.
Fear of flying? What about hurtling along on a train at over a hundred miles an hour when your path ahead could be blocked by almost anything. Bon courage, Arthur.
1mg of xannex and a shot of vodka will make the flight easier!
Oh, you poor lady.
At least you’ve been on a plane! I’m thirty-one and have yet to fly. Maybe, if I ever do, I’ll find out that I’m just as afraid as you are.
I, too am so border-line about flying – I was getting along fine
for a long while until a couple of summers ago I was coming back from Greece with Olympic Airways with a load of turbulence over the Aegean and the pilot barking out things in
Greek and the sea coming closer and closer and I looked around
and saw nearly everyone terrified – with me the worst. Luckily
it was O.K but I’ll never fly with them again that’s for sure. If I
have to go down it will be with a suave ‘your captain speaking,
nothing to worry about’! I did turn it to my advantage tho’ on a
Virgin flight to New York and said I was a nervous flyer (true) and got put in Business class – not bad! I keep thinking about
those last moments as well of those poor people before the crash.
Hypnosis has been very successful in helping reduce the fear of flying. I read about a writer that underwent hypnosis for her fear of flying. After she completed her treatment, she seriously considered taking flying lessons to get her pilot’s license as her fear of flying was gone.
I’ve been in situations with bad turbulence but the worst travel related story I have is taking a bat to Sicily from Malta in August. Our return trip was accompanied by one of the Med’s summer storms making everyone on board sick – crew included. To drown out the sound of projectile vomiting, someone increased the volume of the telly which was showing Italy’s FestivalBar song festival. All went well until one of the song’s lyrics serenaded us with: “Su, Su, Su! E poi andiamo giu, giu, giu!” repeatedly ….
U T
I feel your pain on this one. When I was younger I would hop on any plane and not care. I remember one flight with Air India with some gent sitting next to me groping my breast (without permission!) and the plane jumping like a kangaroo and I had no fear whatsoever! What is it with getting older that increases the fear volume? Now I just want to take cruise ships everywhere! I was very bad after 9/11. I still get emotional about the poor children on those flights. Horrible, horrible way to die!
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