How can I get over my fear of flying?

I love this question because it gives me the opportunity to share something I love. First, the whole idea of plane crashes in commercial airline travel is almost statistically non-existent. It just doesn't happen very often at all. Second, and here is my favorite part, is what I have recommended to several friends and acquaintances: Go to a flight school at your local airport, take a flying lesson and have a professional teach you about how and why an airplane flies. Ask questions about the various noises and procedures that you will experience. You will find that once you know about something, it is far more difficult to be afraid of it.

Talk to your doctor. I don't think Dr. Phil hangs out in this category, maybe you can find him in the travel category.

How do you know they start doing all kind of crazy things before they crash? Most accidents are pilot error - they fly them straight into the ground, no "crazy things" - much quicker than a car crash! They definately don't "spiral out of control". Your fear is based on movies, not fact!

You're completely wrong about what "usually happens in a plane accident." and about it being a slow, torturous way to die. Let me tell you what actually does happen. Most accidents happen shortly after takeoff or on approach to landing. When you slam in to the ground at 200 mph, the impact of both the fall and forward inertia rupture your organs, shatter your skull, and then incinerate you into a crispy, shapeless mass. All very very quickly, if not instantly. In auto accidents...you might lay there dying with a leg bone sticking out or your intestines wound around the tail pipe. The reason why people are so freaked out by airplanes is because they know NOTHING about how they fly, what noises they make, what maneuvers they make, when they are supposed to make them, and how ridiculously regulated the aviation industry is. It's "afraid of the unknown" syndrome. That and Hollywood having their heads up their wazzus. I'd say the next time you fly, try to get excited. Look out the window and just go "wow....look at the scenery and all the little houses down there."

i got a very easy way just think that you are not flying think that plane is going by road and also thing that your plane is so big that another plane can be smashed by your plane.. This will relax your mind and never let you thing odd.. This will realy work..

Take the train!

vodka ka ka

If you're that wigged out about it, then don't beat yourself up about it. It's OK to respect your own feelings. I'm scared to fly too, and I know aviation pretty well. What scares me is ground movement control - all the movements on taxiways and aprons, they are controlled in a very primitive way, they don't even have controlled traffic lights, they're just now figuring out how to signal the runways to tell planes not to cross a runway when another plane is taking off/landing. 40 years after Tenerife, mind you. And it happens all the time where an airplane bangs into another one. Matter of time. Air flight is just as primitive, but it's a big sky and you have a vanishingly unlikely chance of hitting anything else. Railroads are literally light-years ahead of the airlines when it comes to traffic control, because the signals are AUTOMATIC and prevent a dispatcher from lapping up two trains. That stuff's been in place since the Wright Brothers flew. It's possible (unlikely) for both enginemen to misread a signal, but they're now fixing even THAT. So yeah - take the train, it's a more civilized way to travel anyway.

I don't know where you got your information about what "usually" happens in a plane crash. What you described is really a very freak accident. Fixed-wing commercial planes are very stable, and it takes a massive failure of the control systems or instruments to lead to a plane losing control randomly like that. The Air France flight that crashed a while ago, for example, probably had their pitot tube fail because of incredibly wet and cold conditions (even though the tube can be heated, the ice was probably forming too fast) and with no visibility and air speed information, they stalled right into the water. And even then there are other indications the pilots had to figure out what was happening, but unfortunately they ran out of time before they figured it out. Even then, it probably wasn't apparent to the passengers what was happening A morbid thought, but if your fear is that kind of insane accident, then it might be reassuring, creepy as it is, to know that accidents are probably going to happen close to the ground during landing and takeoff. If control's going to be lost, it's going to happen while intentionally flying slowly during approach (flying slowly will move you closer to the stall speed, but you have to do it to land and take off). That's what happened to the Buffalo flight in 2009. That was over in seconds. Flying unexpectedly into terrain during bad visibility is another one, and obviously pretty abrupt. Accidents during takeoff are dangerous because of the limited time to respond. But, and I know you already know this but maybe not this extent, fatal accidents from US major airlines are just becoming so rare. I remember it was in, I think 2007, it was the first year in a loooooong time that no major carrier had even had a major accident. Then I think 2008 had none, then there was the Buffalo one in 2009, and I can't think offhand of the last ones, if there even were any. I mean, that's getting to the point where you're far more likely to die a painfully slow death in your old age from cancer then die slowly in a plane crash. So there, that's my optimistic cheer-up advice! Worry about cancer!