Tips for Grounding That Fear of Flying

The statistics should be as calming as a spring rain.

Boarding an airplane is safer than tooling down the highway. In the U.S., more than 30,000 flights take off and land each day without incident. In 1998, there wasn’t a single death on a domestic airliner. In 1999, there were 10.

In 2000, of course, there have been 88. By any measure, that’s a terrible tragedy. Even so, the number is small next to the more than 600 million passengers hauled safely by commercial planes each year.

All that should be good news.

But to those of us in the fraternity of the sweaty hands and the racing heart, it’s not. We’ve heard the statistics time and again. And, compared to a spasm of terror on a plummeting plane, they don’t mean much.

TWA Flight 800. Pan Am Flight 103. ValuJet Flight 592. EgyptAir Flight 990: Those are far-off news stories, brimming with sadness--a world away.

But Alaska Air Flight 261: That’s a horror just down the road, and it makes nervous fliers like myself take pause.

That’s why I asked Martha Reiss for some advice from the trenches.

Until an illness sidelined her, Martha was a fixture at a panic-attack support group in Simi Valley. Fear of flying? You bet, she’s seen it. Plus fear of crossing bridges, boarding elevators, riding in cars, you name it.

And she’s also seen solutions. Group members help each other by talking out their fears, by learning how to breathe deeply, how to meditate, how to cut fear into bite-size pieces, and how, in the face of panic, to think good, positive thoughts.

“It doesn’t have to be a story line,” she said. “Just something like: ‘Isn’t that flower beautiful?’ Or, ‘Look at how nice that lady’s hat is.’ Or, ‘Look at how great that man’s shoes are.’ ”

Easier said, of course.

In airplanes, I have never focused on any man’s shoes. Instead, there’s the flight attendant: Are her eyes scared, despite the smile on her face? Why did she just walk so briskly--practically run--up toward the cockpit? And what was that strange creaking noise? And did Jane have to tell me she sees droplets of water on the ceiling? And why did the seat belt sign just go on again?

I’m told that not every flight has to be a challenge.

Dr. Glen Arnold runs THAIRAPY, a program for frightened fliers at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport and at the Santa Monica Airport. A pilot as well as a clinical psychologist, he has helped white-knucklers get their bearings for more than 20 years.

The most important thing is developing a positive mental attitude, he said, confirming my worst fear.

But there are more immediate steps he teaches as well:

*Avoid coffee before the flight. Watch out for doughnuts and other sugar-laden treats.

*Try a massage the night before.

*Carry some relaxation tapes.

Most of all, though, work on that attitude.

“Air crashes are a reminder that we’re all vulnerable, no matter where we are or what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s nothing peculiar to flying. I can as easily get mugged in the parking structure or hit by a vehicle crossing the street.”

If Mother Teresa had been a passenger on a plane in trouble, he suggested, she wouldn’t have been stricken with anxiety: “She had come to be at peace with the universe.”

The rest of us have a ways to go.

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Steve Chawkins can be reached at 653-7561 or by e-mail at steve.chawkins@latimes.com.