Do you want to overcome Aviophobia? Nothing to worry about at all! The guide is an all-rounder for combating anxiety with query-solving helpful information.
According to current statistical data, almost 100,000 flights take off daily worldwide, accompanying 06 million flyers, which makes a total of 0.1 % of the world population experiencing new journeys and opportunities. However, most users experience fear of flying turbulence and aren’t comfortable with the bumps and jerks the plane abides during flight.
With this handy guide, we came up with various top queries of users with solved answers, tips, and solutions to help the flyers deal with Aviophobic nature and overcome the turbulence fear in the easiest possible ways. Turbulence is impossible to avoid, but through proper training or course, the flyers can be made capable of panic-free during turbulence, ensuring a stress-free and relaxed journey.
Fear of Flying Turbulence- Quick Solution
General fear of flying gets experienced by almost 35% of the population. It causes stress and panic during turbulence or flight in a jerky plane, but turbulence isn’t dangerous at all! Few of the flyers with less than 3% experience clinically natured Aviophobia that needs physiological treatment. To combat the fear of flying during turbulence, try to remain calm by opting on your headphones like the celebrity Megan Fox does with listening to Britney Spear’s songs. Other ways include course, training, book reading, discussion, securing, and diverting the mind. It isn’t over yet! Want to go in-depth? Let’s see what’s upcoming in the guide!
Turbulence and Its Types
Turbulence
Turbulence refers to the bobble and violent movement of air or water causing jerky movements. In scientific terms, it is the disruption in velocity flow and pressure change. When the air around the plane becomes disrupted, it experiences flying turbulence leading to disoriented bumps.
Types
Depending on the route, various types of turbulence will likely affect the plane by creating bumps during your flight. Each has different nature, strength, and time for this unfavorable situation. For instance, the common turbulence that air crafts experience includes;
| No. | TYPES OF TURBULENCE | TURBULENCE CAUSING AGENTS |
| 1. | Clear Air Turbulence | Strong winds shears |
| 2. | Mountain Wave Turbulence | Mountains cause intermittent currents. |
| 3. | Thunderstorm Turbulence | Storm clouds |
| 4. | Thermal Turbulence | Up risen warm air |
| 5. | Temperature Inversion Turbulence | Inversions |
| 6. | Mechanical Turbulence | Obstructions change airflow |
| 7. | Frontal Turbulence | Fast cold fronts |
Fear of Flying Turbulence- Scientifically Explaned
In everyday life, we have some phobias in the form of fear and horror for something with which our experience had gone wrong, or genetically we feel uncomfortable with a terrible childhood memory or just an anxious over-thinking mind. All can be possible reasons. In Greek, the word fear used to be called “Phobos,” from which the word “Phobia” originated and made way for the psychologist to name these phobias accordingly.
Troubling in the flight means fear of flying called “Aviophobia” or “Aerophobia,” which could be possible because of the turbulence or other scenarios. According to NIHS, just 6.5% is the percentage of Aviophobic flyers in the US state and all 40% worldwide.
Our brain has a small part that controls the feelings and emotions, mainly concerned with fear, the “Amygdala,” which is a connection barrier between the fear stimulus and surrounding condition. So, diverting your mind can be a helpful tip to break down the connection. It’s amazed to see that Amygdala is the “Storage House of Fears,” and whenever you experience flight turbulence, it will activate and cause fear and panic.
How to Tackle the Fear of Flying Turbulence during Flight?
Have Aviophobia and sideways fearful of turbulence, no worries! We have some tips, solutions, and suggestions to tackle the phobias and overcome them in the future to have a fearless journey. A clinical phobia can take time to overcome, but the general isn’t that serious and gets easily handled by the following facts.
Elucidate Flying Fear Turbulence
In simple words, “clear up your mind that turbulence isn’t the cause of a plane crash” once you have gained some confidence, half of the task gets done! You would find no common turbulence crashed plane incidents through facts and happenings. That is the fact to remember!
Ensure Safety Measures
Turbulence can cause injuries because the bumps can make you fall if you aren’t secured with seat belts or standing freely in the plane. So, in turbulence situations, the first thing is to keep yourself safe by opting for safety measures.
Breath Exercises
If you feel suffocated during a fearful state, the best solution is to take deep breaths and slowly release to calm your worry and better tackle the phobia.
Mind Diversion
That is something more worthy and helpful as most celebrities even keep their mind diverted to handle the phobias like Kirsten Dunst divert mind by wearing headphones and starting to focus on songs. An expert said that whenever the fear tries to be overwhelmed, it takes all your diversion, so reverse the process like a left-hand user can start writing with his right hand and suddenly focus diverts. Do what make you confident!
Therapeutic Cure
With fear, flyers can experience nausea, dizziness, and anxiety, for which a therapeutic dose of medicine can work better. Ask the flying attendant for the available treatment or keep the necessary one before taking the flight. Go for dimenhydrinate to cure nausea, and for anxiety, diphenhydramine. At the same time, sleeping pills for long journeys to avoid a phobic state.
Find the Perfect Seat
Usually, the middle seats are more prone to the consequences of turbulence as it’s the main center of gravity. To avoid that, find a seat near the front or back. Are you phobic of height? Choose the site away from the window site.
Flying Classes
Flying classes don’t mean you will learn how to fly a plane; a flight simulation makes the flyers handle their fear and get used to the actual turbulence on the flight. A day or two courses are offered to people if they cannot overcome Aviophobia. The same happened to Whoopi Goldberg by taking a flying lesson to overcome better their flight phobia from the Virgin Airlines flying course.
Feel the Fear
According to experts, sometimes going through your fear can make you fearless rather than keep avoiding it. So, when nothing works, go with the condition, put all your confidence together, and let the fear disappear, making you feel free and strong. Exposure to phobic stimulus cause disproval, so the more you get used to your fear, the quicker you can get rid of it. But remember, people with a strong heart are the ones able to tackle the condition.
FAQ
How to Overcome Fear of Flying Turbulence?
Most people have flying phobias, including Aerophobia and fear of flying turbulence. Being too afraid of the flight, you need some preflight courses, or psychotherapy can better help overcome the fear of turbulence during the flight. Most airlines offer 01-day preflight procedures, and taking them can reduce the anxiety to a minimum.
How Common Is Fear Of Flying?
According to statistical data, 33% – 40% of the population fear flying, from which 16% of flyers have confirmed that yes, they do have a flying phobia and suffer it during traveling throughout flights. Upon further classification, an average of 2.5-5% suffer clinical flying phobia with the crippling type of anxiety, while 60% of flyers can well tolerate flight anxiety.
Celebrities Scared Of Flying?
Most celebrities also suffer from general Aviophobia, which makes it hard for them to handle flight fear. Among them include; Shailene Woodley, Jennifer Aniston, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Affleck, Whoopi Goldberg, Megan Fox, Colin Farrell, Aretha Franklin, William Shatner, and Lucy Hale, Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence, and many more.
Are Pilots Afraid Of Turbulence?
Pilots get well trained to handle turbulence, and it won’t be wrong to say that the Pilots do not fear turbulence. They are experts and professionals in the field with Hi-Tech training, various courses, and additional simulation training to handle the situation perfectly without letting turbulence cause severe damage, injury, or danger to the flyers.
Why Does Turbulence Scare Me?
The bumps create a feeling that the plane is just about to crash or an emergency landing is about to take place, but it isn’t the matter. People who haven’t experienced it before or cannot tackle the anxiety become fearful, and turbulence scares them very effectively. People with turbulence fear had made up their minds about plane crash situations, so these bumps make them scared like a plane crash leading to provoked anxiety.
Why Shouldn’t You Be Afraid Of Turbulence?
Taking your first flight is probably a situation where you must suffer turbulence or a bump-like feeling would make you fearful. Still, it would help if you weren’t afraid because turbulence is a natural phenomenon produced by irregular airwaves that create inevitable bumps. The pilot better handles the situations over time, so try to avoid them, remain calm, and carry on your flight routine.
Is Turbulence On A Plane Scary?
Suppose the flight chooses a water route through a large water body like the Pacific Ocean because of its bad weather or high water pressure. In that case, the air becomes very turbulent, causing severe bumps to the plane, and that situation can be scary for people going through their first flight or unable to control their anxiety. Still, on average, such bumps or turbulence can make even a commoner fearful because it directly affects our brain to cause entire fear behavior.
Can A Plane Crash Due To Turbulence?
A plane crash because of turbulence seems very rare. Over the past few years, no such cases get reported because the modern-day sophisticatedly designed aircraft planes can even handle high turbulence without causing severe damage or injury to the flyers. There is a significantly less chance for today’s generation of modern planes to crash just because of turbulence.
How Do You Stay Calm During Turbulence?
To tackle the turbulence situation, better use headphones or an entertainment gadget as they would keep you calm during the flight. It is helpful because even celebrities use this method to tackle their fear of flight turbulence. Besides these, you can have a general conversation with your neighbor colleague or try to have some activities that keep you focused on the particular solution.
Where Is The Most Turbulent Place To Fly?
The most turbulent place are Areas where the plane might experience severe bumps and jerks, like over water (oceans, sea), mountainous routes, and near the equator. The most turbulent place to fly is from New York to London, covering the Atlantic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is even stormy but is mainly avoided compared to the Atlantic Ocean.
What Time Of Day Has Least Turbulence?
Usually, the flight experiences the slightest turbulence during the early morning or night when the wind is a bit slow, with less thermal heat convection and steady flow. You cannot avoid 100% turbulence; jerks get experienced in each phase of the day; the turbulence is less than mid-day or evening.
Which Planes Handle Turbulence Best?
Loaded with high build-in features, the Boeing 787-9 is designed to experience minor turbulence during the flight. The wind load is considered the latest version and the largest, weighing 750kg/m2 that encounter turbulence and ensure a steady and safe flight—the heavy the plane or wings, the less turbulence the aircraft experience.
Conclusion
There are many reasons behind the fear of flying turbulence, but with easy, quick tips, solutions get tackled, and with worthy courses and training, overcoming the fear becomes easy. People who fear turbulence needs preflight preparation by checking the flight route and flight time and keeping entraining gates for mind diversion. If taking flights is your daily life routine work because of business handling or another purpose, we suggest going for the course to overcome the fear and learn to stay calm. We hope you have found a valuable guide for your queries solving capability. Say goodbye to your flight phobias and enjoy the new experience and journey! Have a safe and joyful journey!
