Flying: is flinging yourself through the air in a giant tin can sensible?

STICK me in a tin can that’s flung through the air, 10,000 metres above the safety of terra firma and I’m a complete mess.

I’m a travel writer and I’m scared of flying

OK, SO I’m a travel writer and I am scared of flying.

And if this comes up in conversation, people will sometimes ask me: ‘So how does that work out?’

I answer — occasionally it doesn’t.

It’s meant that I’ve missed out on some potentially fun, free travel experiences over the years (‘poor you’, I hear you say).

Fortunately, my fear of flying is mild, but it has meant that I haven’t been tempted on some trips for all the riches of Richard Branson.

For me, whatever statistics point suggest about how flying is safer than swimming at a shark-infested beach, I still feel unpleasantly anxious on planes — it’s not natural for us to be flung through the air in a tin can, 10,000 metres above the safety of terra firma.

surprised girl in the airplane

For us aviophobes it’s been a bad couple of years, with a shocking spate of air tragedies, which I won’t go in to — or we’ll all be suffering from a fear of flying.

About 30 per cent of us find air travel anything from faintly disconcerting to unutterably terrifying.

Aviophobes tend to pore over reports of near-misses and crashes and watch episodes of Air Crash Investigation through clenched teeth.

A smaller number of us won’t even step on a plane — not even in first class.

I clearly remember the moment I made the decision to never again put myself through the hellish experience of flying on an airline I considered to be dodgy.

I was on a flight in Mongolia in 1999 and I swear they used tape to stick up the door before takeoff.

I watched in disbelief as a flight attendant giggled as she went about plastering the door like a child’s craft project.

That flight went something like this — I cried, I vomited, the kind flight attendant brought me a another sick bag, I cried some more, we landed safely — I was embarrassed and about 5kg lighter.

Since that experience I haven’t set foot on an aircraft owned by an airline that’s in financial difficulty.

However, even on an airline with a healthy bank balance and a wonderful safety reputation I’m still a nervous flyer.

SINGAPORE AIRLINES NEW RAFFLES CLASS MEALS.

Over the years of flying scared I’ve found two things help me get to my destination: alcohol and kids.

I guarantee a brandy and dry or two before you board — even if it’s at 8am — can get you across the world still smiling.

And kids.

If you’ve ever flown with a child you’ll know how busy it is (‘where’s my sticker book?’, ‘my headphones have fallen off’, ‘waaaater’).

You don’t have a second to yourself to concentrate on your fear (‘stop darling, I need to focus on being scared’).

So if, like me, you’re an aviophobe, maybe you could take your kid on your next work trip, or your sister’s kids or your neighbour’s kids. They really are very handy carry-on.

But don’t combine remedy one and two, as that’s when things get really messy.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @newscomauHQ | @LeahMcLennan

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