Fear of flying
Fear of flying
The ATR 72 Captain switched on the seat belt sign almost 40 min into the flight followed by an announcement that the sign will stay till the destination as we are expecting turbulence. He pumped up the engines, felt like takeoff speed and it was full throttle. I could feel it and the cabin started to vibrate and make noise, I panicked, it was for almost less than a minute and the speed was back to normal, this happened twice with 10-15min. Any reason for that? I feel like I have fear of flying now because of this.
What might have happened
We are sorry to hear that you have had a bad flying experience. Of course, it is hard for us to exactly know why the Captain put on the seatbelts and what happened. Our guess is that there was the weather on your route and that a decision was made to climb above the weather (based on your description of the engines). It is fairly normal practice that if you climb above weather or if you expect turbulence that you switch on the fast seat belts. Based on your description we do not believe that you have been in any danger, but we appreciate the aspect of not knowing what was going on. We think this proves the importance of we, as pilots, always inform our passengers about what is going on, especially when we do something which is not considered to be normal for the average passenger. On behalf of our colleagues in the industry, we are sorry for your experience.
How to work with the fear of flying
If you feel like you need a little control to get more comfortable flying we can recommend a few things.
We have published a video where we explain some of the noises and what is going on throughout a flight.
Many have also benefitted from our fear of flying program that you download and complete at home – you can read more about it here and also read reviews from others.
The most important thing, if you want to do something about your fear of flying, is not to just ignore it. It rarely just disappear by itself and in most cases the earlier you start to do something about it, the easier and shorter the journey will be to flying without fear.
If you want to discuss your situation with us, we are happy to listen and we also from time to time provide one on one fear of flying sessions.
Happy landings
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