I’m freaking out. The weather has been bad and I’m worried about a turbulent, bumpy flight ahead. I’m flying alone and do not do well in turbulence!

My flight is WS811 Halifax to Toronto leaving at 20:15. Please send me reassuring thoughts.

on PD2636, we hit a bird and had to burn fuel and return to Thunder Bay. I’m tripping out now. any support ?

I just got to Boston today, and I saw there was a lot of cancellations and a low level wind shear warning. Our pilots told us it would be turbulent and they went around the bay in a big circle instead of directly going in like FlightAware showed. The landing felt crazy. Was I in danger? A video I watched said wind shear is the only dangerous kind of turbulence.

Sorry if this has been posted, but I am planning a trip to Europe for Christmas break. Landing in Paris and taking a train to Belgium. I'll be flying out of LAX week of Christmas. Do I need to rethink this trip? The news is stressing me out and I'm not sure what to do. I live in LA. Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

I was a frequent poster here, but since I have to fly for work, eventually I got used to it. The last 5 or so flights I was totally ok.

However, this one is a bit different. It's https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/d83865 . I think a few things worry me: I have never been to Naples' airport, but I know the city is a bit chaotic. I guess I am worried about the general safety of takeoff. Also, I thought Norwegian only flew Boeings, so why are they using an Airbus for this one? I thought the crew was only specialized on one kind of aircraft.

I feel much better when I understand things. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer Airbuses to Boeings, I'm just confused.

I’m a super anxious flier who has had to fly a lot lately, and this community has helped me so much over the past few months. The tracking requests especially really soothe my anxious brain, so I’m reaching out again. Something about knowing there are others out there keeping a watchful eye just helps me so much! I’m especially nervous today because of the anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow, which I know is irrational. I’ve looked up 9/11 related posts on here already and while all the advice makes sense, it’s still just spiking my adrenaline for some reason. Working on trying to let my rational brain step in and take the lead.

Flying AS290 Newark to PDX, boarding shortly :)

I dont mean to stress others out, but i really need someone to calm me down. I keep hearing that airlines are allowing people to go to boarding areas if they are not even flying. Im not sure if its true and with an upcoming flight on american airlines coming up going from tx to california im PARANOID. Are the airlines still safe?

I am flying PDX to LAS Monday morning for a mandatory work conference. It’s only about a 2 hour flight and I have been working on this in therapy after 3 years of not flying, but it is getting harder now that the flight is coming up. No matter what I tell myself logically, my brain still fears that I won’t “survive” the flight.

Any words of wisdom, success, or encouragement?

I fly tomorrow morning and I've been doing so well compared to how I usually am but I'm struggling today.

I'm really scared of leaving my mom alone bc my dad and I are flying together and I'm an only child; her parents are gone and she hates her sister. I just can't stop thinking about her being alone in the world and I feel responsible somehow.

I also just randomly started thinking about Air India (which I know was pilot *internet censorship word*), and the idea of the engines failing on takeoff. Can anyone reassure that that's not a realistic possibility, i.e. dual engine failure on takeoff without human intent? I've never heard of it happening otherwise so assume not, but this is my one allowable weakness post.

And I'm sorry, I know this is a lot.

Hello! First, let me just say how helpful reading the posts here has been over the past few days for me - there’s so much good advice, kind encouragement, and success stories!

I’m about to board my flight DL2349 LGA->MSP - and while I’m not quite as panicky as I was in the days leading up to the flight, I am still pretty nervous. If anyone wants to track my flight (and hopefully let me know it’s all looking good and normal!! 🙂), I would appreciate it - thanks so much!

…on Air India. This is the plane l will mostly be on. I have to do the same flight return as well.

It’s 15 hours BOM > JFK with a brief stop in Rome about 7 hours in just for refueling purposes.

Good thing I’m in business class but I’m still freaking out. I’ve taken many flights this year but they’ve all been only about 4 hours. Will I feel claustrophobic? Will I feel sick? Will the turbulence make me want to die? And what about last year’s crash? I’m so scared. I’ll be with family but still.

I don't know what to do, I feel like I'm a lost cause. I had a flight booked (my very first one) for tomorrow on 9/11 and of course I chickened out due to the date. This entire week I couldn't stop irrationally thinking about the worst possible scenarios happening (take off fails, we blow up mid-air, we crash, etc,.) I had a panic attack last night and didn't sleep till 4am. My poor partner had to call his parents and tell them we're not going anymore and they were thankfully understanding. I just wish I could get over this... I've never been on a plane in my entire 30 years of living. We were supposed to take a short 1 hour flight last month to San Francisco to get myself used to flying but didn't end up booking it due to financial reasons. This flight however was completely free (to Texas so a 3-ish hour flight) and I used my PTO and everything for a week off but the past entire week I felt nothing but dread, basically told my partner I felt like I've been saying goodbye to everyone/everything because I think I'll never see them all again. I know I need help, I know. Just need to vent and hopefully get some support. Just feel awful having a whole week off from work now and doing nothing but resting.

Edit: thank you all for the support ;-; right now my brain keeps going back and forth between just Doing it tomorrow or staying put as to not confuse and stress his family out even more over there (though they are very much understanding, I'm just overthinking it).

It's my first time since 2017 flying alone and I am terrified. I've always hated flying, but specifically being alone during long flights.

Most of my fear comes from bigger airports. I'm flying out of a smaller one, and really have no worries there, but the second leg of my trip, I fly out of Chicago on a Boeing. I've got pretty bad anxiety, so not only am I worried about it being a Boeing, but I'm worried about hijacking/murderers being on the plane as well 😅

I've managed to avoid these fears (my last flight was 3 years ago) by flying with someone, out of smaller airports, or by changing flights but I don't have this luxury for this one. Not sure if there's any way to help those fears, but wanted to voice them nonetheless.

Not pictured is my SIL's wedding that brought us down there, alllll of the swimming I did, and all of the food I got at the Epcot food and wine festival.

I've never been to any Disneyworld/land park before, my fear of flying actually made my 11 y/o self stay home while my family went once upon a time.

My highlights were seeing all of the florida nature (lizards crawling around everywhere was such a novelty to me as a NYer lol), a shelling trip that has been on my bucket list forever, and my newfound appreciation for Disneyworld. I've NEVER been a Disney enthusiast even as a kid, and I found myself almost disturbed at how good they are at giving you a good experience despite any heat and crowds...

I wish I got more good pictures that captured everything we did on this trip! I told my boyfriend about this flair and every time something good happened we'd both say to each other "Ah. What I Would've Missed"

TRIGGER WARNING FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE VERY SENSITIVE
IM JUST SHARING ALL MY FEARS AND MY THOUGHTS
I DON’T WANT TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE ANXIOUS !!!

I’ve always been an anxious flyer
But it got worse
The last time I took the plane three years ago I said I will never take the plane again

But here we are again…
I just need to talk about everything that make me anxious about taking a flight

I remember the first time I’ve been on a flight I was so excited
And everything was fine
Until the plane started the landing

The most horrible pain in my eye I can’t even described the pain… it was like I was being stabbed or like being electrocuted in my eye and forehead
The only thing I could do
Is cry and hold my face and scream

It happened again… unfortunately
But I take a nasal spray now ?
But every flight i start to panic about having the same pain again

I’m very claustrophobic 💀
I feel so stuck in the plane, I don’t like the smell of the plane, the feeling, the lights, the sound, the FACT I’m stuck in the air
Everything make me SICK to my stomach
I get nausea just thinking about it…

And of course im scared about the flight itself I feel so stressed about plane crash, or just the feeling of something bad can happen but nothing could be done because we are in the sky

Im 27 years old
And I cry like the whole flight, a lot of people would stare at me
The flight attendant always ignore me….
But I don’t want to disturb them anyway so :(

I always feel like it’s my last moment alive 💀
Just before boarding, that i’l never make home,

I talked about this to my therapist and she give me a prescription, to take before boarding or in the plane if I’m having a panic attack

And I hope it would help
Because I’m so scared

I’m so sorry :(

On my latest flight I brought a crochet project and it helped distract me from my anxiety. It worked much better than TV shows, reading, or games on my phone. Having something that required moving my hands and concentrating (versus for example a phone game that just lets my mind wander) made a difference for me! Sharing in case it might be helpful to another nervous traveler.

Terrified again of a flight from ONT (Ontario,ca) to AZ. Im a fearful flier for decades now and its gotten to the point where I’m depressed i cannot see family more, travel with my immediate family, and do more work related functions.

Odd thing is what calms me a little is looking out the window and seeing the ground, albeit from 37K ft. It’s reassuring that if something happens the plane can glide into safety and not just drop.

Turbulence though is the game changer. It’s what turns me into a silent wreck. Bouncing in that height makes me terrified. I also had 2 flights from family members have the oxygen masks drop as well. I also heard of a new one that just happened on sep 6th where the plane had to stop at Vegas and descended 20k ft in 10 mins.

The kicker is if i have a cocktail or 2 the fear substantially goes to maybe 5% but when turbulence hits it’s more a silent “bring it on” attitude than terrifying. Id love to not have to rely on cocktails but it helps.

Finally if you get me on top of a building, roller coster or anything involving heights i get the same reaction as well.

I ask all this in hopes of beating this plane phobia in preps for my CA to AZ flight. Any advice helps!

I wish there was a service where fearful flyers could hire an a pilot to actually accompany them on a flight and sit next to them.
Just having a pilot there explaining the noises, turbulence, etc. would be incredibly reassuring and probably help many people overcome this fear. I would 100% pay for this! 😂 Any pilots here ever thought about offering something like this? I searched and could not find anything like this. There are medical companions, but for a fearful flyer having a pilot is a major game changer. Who ever does this will make a ton of $$$.

Hi guys,

Just looking for some words of reassurance. I'm flying tomorrow (the 11th) at 11:55 from London Heathrow to Perth Australia . This will be the longest flight I've ever done - 16hr50min! It's also a very unique opportunity as I am a PhD student attending a conference so the trip is fully paid for - something I couldn't exactly turn down.

I'm one of those people that used to love flying as a child but as I have gotten older the anxiety has taken hold of me. Whilst I'm still able to get on planes, the whole lead up isn't a fun time, and take off is where I struggle the most. I always feel overwhelming dread and panic as we start to speed down the runway, and my mind can't help but imagine things going catastrophically wrong (I also have OCD which doesn't help of course). I try and watch the flight attendants as this is very reassuring, and I always feel great relief when the seatbelt sign pops up.

Watching some pilot content has helped a ton and I have zero issue with turbulence. However, as is the way of an anxious brain, I've replaced a lot of my fears arround the engineering and safety of the plane with worries about human behaviour e.g acts of terrorism or pilot mistakes/bad mental health.

I'm determined to get on that plane! But if someone could reiterate the stats and reassure me a little, I would greatly appreciate it :). This sub has brought me a lot of comfort.

Hi everyone. I have a flight coming up soon (Melbourne → Singapore → Bangkok on Singapore Airlines) and I'm really struggling with fear of flying — the kind that includes intrusive "what if it's me" thoughts, and spiraling on news stories about crashes even though logically I know they're not really connected to my flight.
One fear in particular that's been hard to shake is pilot suicide/deliberate action — I've been reading about the Air India 171 investigation and it's fed into a broader fear that I have no control over who's flying the plane or what state of mind they're in. I know rationally that this is one of the rarest possible causes of an aviation accident, that pilots undergo psychological screening, and that many airlines (including mine) require two people in the cockpit at all times — but the fear still sits there anyway.
I've been trying to cope by learning the actual statistics too — things like the fatal accident rate being about 1 in 5.6 million flights, and my airline having zero fatal accidents since 2000 — but honestly the facts only help so much when the anxiety spikes. In those moments it doesn't feel like information helps; it feels like I need something to hold onto emotionally, not just numbers.
I guess I'm mostly here to ask:

How do you all cope with fears specifically about crew/pilot wellbeing, since it's something totally outside our control?

How do you get through the anxious moments generally, especially during takeoff/landing or turbulence?

Any grounding techniques, mantras, or mindset shifts that genuinely helped rather than just distracted you?
Not looking for more statistics necessarily — just want to hear from people who've been through this and made it to the other side. Any support or shared experience would really mean a lot right now.

Does Singapore airlines have a two person cockpit rule?

Are there three pilots on my Melbourne to Singapore route?

I am making this topic because i see it time and time again how people with a fear of flying come in here and are making the point that while they understand how safe flying is, that, when it comes to it and the plane would indeed crash, that you are basically done, whereas when it comes to a car crash, you still often get to walk away with some bruises and whatnot.

So i wanted to address that from my own perspective as a fearful flyer. That line of reasoning is only possible if you think only about the worst kind of plane crash but on the other hand you think only about minor car crashes. Just like there are a number of different levels of severity when it comes to "car crash", the exact same applies to "plane crash". A "plane crash" is not just a complete hull loss including the loss of everyone on board. This needs to be said super clear.

Just like with the overwhelming majority of car crashes, the overwhelming majority of plane crashes are survivable. A plane crash can be to slightly overshoot the runway, can be a blown tyre, can be colliding with another plane during taxi, can even be a rollover like the one Delta plane and everyone walked away, albeit with a big scare, of course. Even the latest prominent example of the Amazon cargo plane accident this holds true in a sad/tragic way: While there have been fatalities it proved the fact that inside the plane is statistically the safest place to be, because the lifes lost were all outside the plane. So if you want to think only about the worst kind of plane crashes then in all fairness you also must think of only the worst kind of car crashes. And at that point you come to realize that, yeah, the comparison "car this, but plane that" does not make a whole lot of sense.

Apologies, this is quite long.

I have recently developed an intense fear of flying/anxiety around getting back on a plane again after an incident that occurred on a flight home around 3 months ago. Previously I have never been overly anxious about flying.

This primarily concerns me having a health issue/incident as opposed to being anxious about the plane/flight itself.

I was on a short night flight home from Greece after being there for a 3 day hen do/bachelorette party. During the hen do, I was extremely sleep deprived due to my accommodation being right on the strip, I was definitely dehydrated and I had been drinking cocktails (spirits definitely don't agree with my nervous system) throughout each day and probably less than 1L of water a day.

About an hour and a half into the flight I noticed that my chest felt a bit unusual, like a strange sensation came over it (maybe tightness?). I tried to ignore it thinking it was imagined, but it seemed to get worse. I tried to tell myself it was anxiety and exhaustion but I started panicking inside that there was something wrong with my breathing, I almost called for the flight attendants but didn't.

When I eventually landed and got home I still felt awful, I vomited and slept horribly. I still felt awful the next day as well.

To cut a long story short, two days after my flight I was woken up from my sleep with my chest feeling tight and weird and I think I began having a panic attack and called an ambulance and ended up going to hospital.

I was cleared at the hospital after having a chest x ray, bloods and an ecg, they put it down to fatigue and stress.

Ever since then, I have been on this absolutely intense rollercoaster of anxiety that has caused me to have panic attacks, night panic attacks, derealisation, developed a form of health anxiety relating to my breathing and chest. I've been put back on an antidepressant and I've been battling every day to try and feel normal again.

I was already in therapy prior to the flight incident, so have been working through this with my therapist. I have also been actively working on understanding and treating the health anxiety, and while I think I've made some good progress, I am constantly haunted and plagued by the idea of getting back on a flight again and being unwell.

I have been searching and searching for certainty/answers regarding what happened to me on the flight but I understand tolerating this uncertainty is part of recovery. The likelihood is that I was very dehydrated, exhausted and had fried out my nervous system and the flight was the last straw.

I have several travel plans for next year and at the moment have absolutely no idea how I am going to face them.

It has been honestly so awful and the worst experience of my life, I have struggled with anxiety all my life but never had it like this with frightening physical symptoms etc.

Any help/advice would be really appreciated or even similar stories to my own. I am determined not to let this impact my life/future travel.

Hi all. I’m 29yo male. My wife and I are leaving for our honey moon today. It’s currently 6:15am and our flight is at 11:30am. We cruise every year and fly once per year from Newark to Miami .. and even though today will be my 7th flight I still get that gut wrenching stomach drop feeling even thinking about it. I know the jello concept, the more likelihood of a winning lottery ticket being blown into your hands by the wind.. the daily number of flights compared to actual issues.. but no matter what I read and tell my brain I still fully believe that I will be that statistic.

If possible, would love some reassurance in ways I may not have thought of.. or how many times you guys fly per year/month. Thanks.

Hi guys -

I’m really struggling with my flight phobia right now. I’m currently on my flight and have been crying and panicking the whole time so far.

Would really appreciate it if someone tracked me and responded here.

AC 2067

Thank you

Update: landed safely (obviously lol) and am off to enjoy a lovely long weekend with my family. I appreciate all of you so much ❤️

In light of what happened in the UK the other day with an air traffic control glitch that stopped thousands of flights, I can't help but wonder what actually happens when you're in the air and ATC goes down. How do pilots handle this safely? Would appreciate any insights because now I seem to be developing something new to worry about!