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Comment by mililani | Hacker News Reader

Ugh...my wife is deathly afraid of flying. She is in Canada now and flying back to SFO next week. I hope she doesn't hear about this.

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Point out that the fact that this is newsworthy underscores how rare of an occurrence it is.

I doubt that really helps with those types of fears …

It’s possible to have a complete and rational understanding of the situation and still feel fear. That, at least, frequently happens to me.

My friend with flight anxiety actually got it from researching airplane safety. While they did learn about probabilities n'all, they also learned about way too many details, after which every single sound seems like the oscillating electron pump failure on Molvania flight 52317 where nobody survived the spontaneous atmosphere exit. It's not exactly rational, it's your silly brain suddenly deciding the specific probability of gruesome death went from epsilon to 99%, and anxiety going through the roof.

Solution: sleeping pills, apparently, or generally anti-anxiety and good contact with flight staff (thus ability to find "safe feeling" seats). In the specific case.

I would recommend trying private airplane lessons (on a calm day) Being in control of an airplane helps a lot, and that feeling may transfer to commercial flights.

I suspect this is what makes people feel that a car is safer: they themselves are in control, and can believe that they'd miraculously dodge any crashes through skill and luck.

I don't know if that sense of control is transferable, though; paranoid backseat drivers are still a thing.

She tried. It was actually no problem, but didn't help. Apparently the lack of impact (i.e. "I'm gonna die and can't do anything about it") is exactly the point. In some ways it's hilariously similar to my social anxieties.

I remind myself that the vast majority of people who fly and steward planes all day, every day, live to a ripe old age.

If she does, it might be worth pointing out that there was apparently little-if-any loss of life (though we certainly don't have all the details yet...)

Apparently it was two dead, others injured.

I was scheduled to arrive in SFO today and now my flight is canceled.

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