Fearful flyers - services for business executives afraid of air travel - Amenities

Chief Executive, The, Nov-Dec, 1992 by Michael T. Harris

However, besides the common bond of flying fear, these four executives share something else: They learned to overcome their fears through programs designed to help executives and others get back on a plane.

Tanger, Wisbar and Ernisse attended AAirBorn, a two-day seminar sponsored by American Airlines, and designed to help flyers deal with their fears. Frye learned to control his terror through the seven-week Fearful Flyer Program, offered by USAir.

The International Organization of Women Pilots sponsors Fear of Flying Clinics in Seattle, where Alaska Airlines provides commercial planes and employees to conduct the sessions.

American Airlines and USAir offer the most complete program packages in the industry. A commercial jet airplane is used as the learning lab, while a pilot and flight attendant work alongside trained counselors. Group support and experience sharing make the ordeal easier. Goals include identifying the normal noises an airplane makes during flight.

Tanger completed the class, but did not take a graduation flight. "I came close," he says. But his work paid off: When the time came to take an urgent business trip, Tanger was able to board the plane. He used the skills he learned to get through the flight. "I went to another class, held in New York, and I've been flying ever since," he says. "It has made my life so much easier and richer."

After participating in the Fearful Flyer program, Ernisse found he had a specific--and easily isolated--problem with flying. On the first day of the class, everyone did a breathing exercise. "I found that my average number of breaths per minute was around 19, while the average human takes 10 to 12," the executive explains.

The American Airlines team of Sandra Brown, a nationally certified counselor, and Dr. Duane Brown, professor of counseling and counseling psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that Ernisse was breathing too rapidly. He would begin hyperventilating, which causes more anxiety.

"It was like a light bulb going on for me," Ernisse says. "The Browns gave me some relaxation techniques--tensing your muscles and then relaxing--and since then it's been marvelous."

Ernisse's problem is somewhat unusual. Of the 22 people in his class, he says, more than half simply had a fear of the airplane. Most programs address this fear with knowledge. A careful explanation of why an airplane stays in the air, and a review of the mechanics of flying seem to help most people through their fears. At least it did for Wisbar. "I think that fear for me boils down to a loss of control and also a fear of dying. And, of course, you give up control when you enter an airplane."

The odd thing, Wisbar adds, is that it seems people who have these irrational fears do respond positively when they are walked through all the noises, procedures and basics.

Carol Stauffer, a psychiatric social worker who founded USAir's program in 1975, arranges fear into four main categories: fear of having no control, fear of closed spaces, fear of heights, and fear of dying. Her first response to participants' fears is: You can't be tense and relaxed at the same time. "That also means you can't be panicky and relaxed at the same time," she says. "So through relaxation training, a person can teach his or her body a new response to the airplane."