Coping with Flight Anxiety? Texas Aviation Expert Offers Advice

If you look anywhere in the news these days, all you see are stories after stories of flight mishaps, emergencies, and tragedies, but that doesn't mean you have to fear getting on a plane at all times. Thanks to a local Texas expert and his words of wisdom, we have some tips, tricks, and insider info on taking stress-free flights inside and outside the Lone Star State.

How to Cope with Flight Anxiety

According to Collin Ruff, a flight instructor in Midland, TX, he prepares the public with any flight scenario in his interview with FirstAlert7.

One such scenario is how flyers of any age can come to grips with getting into that metal tube in the sky without the overbearing sense of anxiety.

Ruff encourages worried flyers to take the opportunity to take a lesson. This way you experience the training that each pilot goes through firsthand.

He also provides some tips to manage your flight anxiety, like breathing in for four seconds, then holding it in for four seconds before exhaling. Breathing exercises like these can help calm you down in high-stress situations like flying.

Also, right when you get on to a plane, locate all exits as you find your seat and listen to the flight attendants as they give their pre-flight instructional speeches.

The fact that you are listening to them and equipping yourself with knowledge of what could happen and how to respond can ease some anxiety and fears you may have about flying, Ruff included.

Flight Facts for Worried Flyers

Above all else, the least you can do to quell any fears of flying is to remember these facts from FirstAlert7 and Business Insider:

• You are more likely to give birth to quadruplets than die in a plane crash
• In 2022, there was about one aviation accident for every .83 million flights
• Turbulence, although uncomfortable and scary, is perfectly normal on flights
• Engine failure is a commonly rehearsed scenario for pilots
  • Most planes can glide up to 100 miles without any engines
  • All commercial aircrafts are able to fly on only one engine, if need be
• A plane's wings are specially tested before commercial use and cannot snap off mid-flight