What Every Pilot Should Know about Passengers with Extreme Fear of Flying
Plus pointers on what to say when there’s turbulence
Dear commercial airline pilot,
You have one phobic passenger on board. Guess what her phobia is? Fear of flying.
Fear so intense Dani, the passenger in question, takes a full dose of clonazepam half an hour before boarding. She also pins a medal of the Virgin Mary to her pants and prays the rosary twice during the flight, for a total of 100 Hail Mary’s.
Dani starts praying just when the plane speeds up for takeoff. She prays the second rosary during the approach and landing, which is when half of aviation fatalities happen, or so she’s read.
The clonazepam she began taking after a flight to Colombia. Just when the plane was about to touch down in Bogota, the engine revved up mightily as the plane climbed back up and circled around before actually landing.
All this and the pilot said zilch! Dear pilot, don’t you ever do that. As captain, you must always project — immediately please — your reassuring voice when anything out of the ordinary happens.
Dani nearly fainted. The nice man next to her let her hold and squeeze his hand. It helped, even though this man didn’t look as calm and…
