Flight fright

There are moments of realisation throughout your life. Moments of self-awareness and acceptance. It was only this year, at the age of 28, that I realised I was no longer in the same market-research age-bracket as 18 year olds (technically this happened when I turned 26). One day you think in a certain way, and one day you don’t.

But fear of physical injury, and awareness of your own body’s vulnerability, tend to creep up slowly, almost like they are part of puberty, part of becoming an adult. This isn’t just because your body’s that wee bit creakier these days, but because you’ve learned about so many new ways in which life can go wrong and now barely trust your own brain to get you safely through the day, let alone your doctor, your dentist or the multitude of people responsible for the maintenance of the aeroplane you’re about to jet off on holiday in.

As a child, most just find flying a bit boring – after the initial excitement of watching planes take off and land again, you find yourself strapped in and expected to sit still and quiet for a number of hours, and the novelty soon wears off. But you certainly don’t express any concern about the plane itself, nor the scantily-understood science that keeps the thing aloft, thousands of feet above the solid, indifferent terrain below.

However, even if you never experience even the slightest judder, spot of mild turbulence, or general discomfort, as you get a bit older you’ll find you learn just enough from newspapers, the internet, and folk down the pub, to be just a little bit doubtful about the whole process.

And without realising it, you will indeed have developed a mild fear of flying. In fact you might not realise it for years; until you next get on a plane, in fact. Because you don’t realise you’re afraid of flying until you’re next sitting on a plane, patiently awaiting take-off, and ready for your well earned holiday in pastures abroad. And you’ll check your seatbelt and you’ll look at the other passengers putting bags in overhead lockers. And you’ll watch the stewards walk up and down and you’ll look at the individual lights and air conditioning controls above your head. And you may even be lucky enough to be sitting in a seat that affords you a view out of the window at the wing of the plane.

And you’ll suddenly find yourself thinking far too hard about the whole thing…