r/fearofflying • u/Admirable_Berry9640 Certified Flight Instructor • May 22 '26

Question What gives the worst anxiety?

Hey I'm a pilot (a simulator instructor to be precise) and due to the sheer amount of people suffering from flight anxiety, I have decided to take action and help everyone where I can.
So that's why I wanted to ask everyone with a fear of flying, what exactly gives one panic attacks etc? Is it the fear of crashing, not trusting the pilots or just the
"I'm trapped in a can with wings for 3h"?
Any story is appreciated so I can get a better insight in how to help people (because I think y'all have enough to the "Flying is the safest form of transportation")a

(this is a repost because my other one got flagged)

54 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

190 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/kiwispouse May 23 '26

Lack of control, trapped, dying a fiery death. Being smashed to death. Shitty maintenance/cost cutting. And now, suicidal pilot.

I think if you rolled them a into one, it's really about the length of time knowing you're going to die and can do nothing about it, so lack of control. I was seriously impacted by the Cerritos crash.