How to Make a “Soft Landing” for Aviophobia

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, May 1, 1999

Air travel has a low accident rate, but when an accident does occur, the fatality rate is high. Even veteran crew members sometimes breathe a sigh of relief the moment the wheels touch the ground, especially after a turbulent landing.

A salesman in his thirties was scheduled to fly to Kyushu for a business trip but canceled at the last minute, earning a severe reprimand from his boss. Three months earlier, while on a business flight, he had suddenly experienced shortness of breath, palpitations, dizziness, and an impending sense of doom—classic symptoms of a panic attack. The fear of experiencing another episode overwhelmed him, and he succumbed to his anxiety.

In the 1995 movie French Kiss, Meg Ryan played a character with severe aviophobia. She diligently practiced flight simulation to overcome her panic attacks, yet when the real flight came, she still succumbed to fear, attempted to open the emergency exit, and ended up tumbling onto the "ground."

However, when her fiancé, a psychiatrist, fell for a French woman during a business trip to Paris and broke up with her over the phone, jealousy and anger forced her onto a plane. One would expect another panic attack, but instead, the bearded Frenchman sitting next to her engaged her in conversation, distracting her completely. Before she knew it, they were above the clouds. With a little wine, she dozed off and slept soundly through the landing.

The adventures that unfold after her arrival in Paris are a treat for the audience, but regardless of passengers’ fears or wishes, planes will fly safely most of the time—and occasionally, they may not.

Kevin Kline, who played the Frenchman, had previously portrayed a journalist covering anti-apartheid protests in South Africa in Cry Freedom (1987). The suspense built up as he, aware of the risks, attempted to flee South Africa with his family in a small aircraft, constantly under the threat of being shot down.

As I mentioned in my discussion of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the only real way to overcome fear is to confront it head-on. In cases of transportation-related phobias, exposure therapy can be done with patients on subways. However, when it comes to airplanes, treatment isn’t quite so simple.