“HUMANS were meant to fly, I just wasn’t,” said 38-year-old Maria Ioannou, one of 200 fearful fliers taking part Cyprus Airways’ two-day seminar on aerophobia yesterday and today.
The phobia itself embodies a plethora of other phobias such as claustrophobia or a fear of height, however, Ioannou has pin pointed her fear down to one aspect of the flight: she doesn’t like being in the air.
“I don’t like the fact that in a few minutes I will be in the air,” said Ioannou describing the shakiness that overwhelms her once she is in a plane. One of the aspects of flying that she cannot deal with is the fact that she is no longer in control.
“I have a drink during the flight but it doesn’t help,” said Ioannou on a more humorous note. “I feel a lot better when we get closer to the destination and I see land.” Her phobia is all-consuming as it stops her from taking plane trips. However, she truly believes that to some degree the seminar will help her.
What Ioannou described is typical of the irrationality of the phobia, because according to Cyprus Airways Captain Christodoulos Christodoulou, one of the main speakers at the seminar, the landing is one of the aspects of the flight that need most concentration, compared to already being up in the air.
Despite her phobia, Maria is one of the 50 people who have signed up to get on a Cyprus Airways plane today as part of the seminar. Passengers will be taxied around Larnaca airport’s runways and have various unknown noises explained to them. This won’t bother Maria as the plane will not actually take off.
Knowledge is key according to many of the speakers including Captain Christodoulou who approached a sensitive subject for some, with humour and useful, detailed information such as how a plane works.
“Education is important as that way you’re able to give yourself a rational explanation,” said Christodoulou. Similar sentiments were expressed by Minister of Communication and Works Erato Kozakou-Markoulli, who also stressed the importance of knowledge. “It is natural to fear the unknown, that’s why education and making people aware is the best way to deal with the problem, by describing in simple terms how a plane works, but also the procedures undertaken to prepare for a flight,” she said admitting that she herself suffered from the phobia but simply had to get over it.
A plane does not fly with its engines but with its wings was one of the important facts to emerge.
“Nothing will happened if the engines cut out at 35,000 feet,” said Christodoulou adding that it takes around 25 minutes for a plane to reach the ground if this happens, giving the crew that amount of time to find an airport.
Another issue that was tackled step by step was the occurrence of storms and turbulence, which tend to make most people nervous, regardless of whether they suffer from aerophobia or not. Christodoulou explained how first and foremost an aircraft will never fly into a storm. The crew use weather radar as well as maps to locate storms in order to fly around them. Turbulence, another common occurrence, is simply the unstable passage of air as opposed to smooth. These are dealt with again by avoiding them, also with a change of speed and height. The significance of always wearing a seatbelt was also stressed even if the seatbelt sign is switched off. “By wearing your seatbelt tightly, you’re in no danger from turbulence, but even when the seatbelt sign is off you should wear it at least loosely,” said Christodoulou.
Presentations were also made by the psychologist Dr Anna Patichi and Dr Ioanni Markou, a neurologist and aviation doctor, who tackled issues such as the definition of a phobia, panic attacks and anxiety, the power of the subconscious as well as relation techniques.
The participants seemed eager to dispel their phobia as they asked many questions, some intelligent some simply fuelled by an irrational fear. One woman asked whether there was any chance of a plane losing its wings, whereby Captain Andreas Georgiou and head of Flight Safety for the airline, reassured that he had never heard of such an occurrence.
Participants were told that a plane is still the safest means of transport and statistically a person would have to fly daily for 19,000 years to get involved in a plane crash. According to the Air Transport Association (IATA) 2010 was the best year in the history of flying. In 2009 there was one accident in every 1.4 million flights and in 2010 one accident in every 1.6 million flights.
“This shows that flying is becoming safer and safer,” said Captain Georgiou.
This is the second year running that Cyprus Airways has offered its services free of charge to help members of the public get over a fear of flying.
