Fewer Americans report feeling safe about flying this year, according to AP-NORC polling cited by The Associated Press, which measures confidence rather than the prevalence of aerophobia and does not establish that commercial flying has become more dangerous. [1]

The report's clinical signal is more tentative, as psychologists and flight attendants said they had encountered greater worry after recent aviation incidents, including among people without a prior fear of flying, but AP explicitly called that evidence anecdotal, while passenger traffic also fell during part of the spring and airlines cited several possible causes, including economic uncertainty and reduced business and government travel. [1]

Fear itself is not imaginary because its trigger is statistically rare, and for some people it centers on takeoff, landing, confinement or loss of control rather than a calculation about crashes, while a panic attack can remain disabling after a traveler has read every safety comparison available.

Treatment therefore addresses the anxiety rather than trying to win an argument with it, with AP's experts recommending slow breathing with longer exhales for milder fear and exposure therapy for more severe cases, beginning with photographs or videos and progressing through virtual-reality cabins or practice flights, to tolerate the sensations and situation rather than promise that uncertainty has vanished. [1]

The useful separation is strict because a poll records perceived safety, practitioner interviews suggest demand, and therapy addresses distress, while collapsing those stages turns recent incidents into proof of danger or reassuring statistics into a substitute for care, neither of which helps the person afraid to board.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago