Aerophobia—As Turbulence Increases, How To Conquer Your Fear Of Flying

26.05.2024 - 20:57 / forbes.com / Paul Williams

Flying can feel scary, particularly in light of recent incidents where passengers were injured during episodes of severe turbulence. There are ways though, to conquer a fear of flying, even when safety issues are a concern—and that's a good thing, as turbulence is expected to increase in the decades to come.

Aerophobia, a fear of flying, affects around 20-25 million Americans, sometimes with severely debilitating outcomes. The reality is still that its far more dangerous to drive to the airport than it is to take a plane, and there were no fatalities in 2023 across any of the 37 million commercial airline flights taken, reports Bloomberg.

2024 has seen several incidents involving flight safety; a recent death onboard a Singapore Airlines flight after a passenger suffered a suspected heart attack during turbulence and 12 passengers injured during turbulence on a Qatar Airways plane heading for Dublin in May.

Turbulence is one worry for passengers uneasy in the air—clearly, safety is another, and it seems, people are feeling a little more uneasy. Google Trends reported that U.S. web searches for 'flight safety' in March 2024 were the highest they've been since October 2014.

Travel insurer VisitorsCoverage reports that in a recent poll, 74% of polled travelers have safety concerns flying, the majority reporting these concerns were linked to recent Boeing safety concerns.

All of this has been compounded by the knowledge that there is a shortage of air traffic controllers and a consequent increase in the number of near misses on runways over 2023.

To allay fears about flying, it helps to understand what turbulence is and its origins; turbulence is caused by a sudden change in airflow, sometimes coming from changes in the weather caused by nearby storms or because of the way air moves across mountain ranges or often due to jet streams. Turbulence is measured through four categories—light, moderate, severe or extreme.

Something called 'clear air' turbulence happens when warm and cool air collide, making the path for planes through it a little bumpy for passengers and this type of turbulence is harder for pilots to detect because it isn't associated with visible weather patterns.

What's important to remember is that while the plane can often seem to passengers as if it's falling a long way down, pilots often only measure a drop of 10 or 20 feet, and it's caused by air movements and not through any mechanical malfunction.

Turbulence rarely causes injuries to passengers traveling through it. Data from the Federal Aviation Industry shows that between 2009 and 2021 only 30 passengers and 116 crew members suffered serious injuries.

Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading,