Overcoming Aviophobia: A Self Help

Those who suffer from the fear of flying or aviophobia -- or aviotophobia or aerophobia -- can do a few things to minimise their fear, I recently found out.

First is to read as many aviation-related magazines as possible and not merely reading about aircraft after they had crashed. That way aviophobic people might be able to coax their sub-conscious mind into accepting the fact that there are more to a flight than air crashes. I wouldn't want to go into the details about how the mind operates. You can ask Freud about it.

Aviophobics could also do themselves a great favour by visiting aerospace show and exhibition and be awed by the sheer power, grace and agility of aircraft as they take to the sky in a gravity-defying manoeuvre.

The three pictures here show an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft ever built, took to the sky during a flight display at the ongoing Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibition and air show in Singapore, which started yesterday till Feb 26.

The A380 was such a beauty, dancing in the sky like that. Makes me really wants to be on an A380 flight.

Heading For Asian Aerospace 2006

Isn't it strange that an aviophobic should find aeroplanes beautiful? But I do. I do find aeroplanes beautiful.

And that is why I am going to see them all at the Asian Aerospace 2006 exhibition as soon as it is open to the public. The A380 will be there, so will other aircraft -- jetfighters, business jets, turboprop military trainer, combat helicopter...also aviation technologies, and all.

PLANE FLYING BLIND OVER INDONESIA AIR

PLANE carrying 145 passengers flew for hours without navigation and communications systems over Indonesia before making a safe emergency landing.

The systems on the Boeing 737-300, of Indonesian regional airline Adam Air, broke down 20 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta's international airport at 10.20am on Saturday, according to Kompass newspaper.

The pilot flew over the island of Java without knowing where he was going for about four hours after finding the problem. He made an emergency landing at 2.45pm on the eastern island of Sumba after seeing a runway, which was only 1800m long.

Boeing 737-300s usually need at least 2200m to land and take off. No one aboard the plane, which had been bound for the South Sulawesi province capital of Makassar,
was injured.

Passengers were not told of the problems during the flight, Kompass said, although many suspected something was wrong as the plane kept changing altitudes. An investigation has been launched. (Source: Herald Sun)

The good thing, no one panicked.

An Eerie Page 487

A friend who was on his way back from from Sydney sent me a SMS, asking if he could grab something for me at the airport or on his way to the airport. I told him, thank you, that was so kind of you but that won't really be necessary. But if you insist, I guess, a book will do.

"Any writer or title in particular?" He asked. "No, nothing in particular. Maybe you could just grab the one nearest to you," I said, and thank him for his thoughfulness. That was in 2002.

A few days later he handed me a paperback version of John J. Nance's "Blackout", with a tagline on the front cover proclaiming Nance as "The Master of Airborne Suspense". Oh boy, didn't I tell you I am Aviophobic? I can't be reading books like this, I'd be dead from the stress. But I bit off the remark before it burst out. How could he know. And besides, it might be good to read such a book, for a change.

At that time I was reading Stephen King's "Dreamcatcher" and as soon as I finished it, I summoned all my courage to begin reading "Blackout". It was full of suspense, as promised but what stands out from among the fast-paced, whirlwind plot, was someting said by one of characters on Page 487:

What spooked me most was the fact that the book was written and published in 2000, a year before the Sept 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in Sept 2001 and there I was reading about a jetliner impacting the WTC.

I got this feeling that somehow, somewhere, I and whoever was behind the Sept 11 attacks, had stared at same Page 487 of Nance's book at one point in our life.

Now Nance has came out with another book "Skyhook" (published in 2003) which promised another hell-raising plane rides. I am still thinking whether I should read this one. Clearly, Nance's "Blackout" had affected me in more ways than one -- because it has somehow managed to enrich my imagination of things that can happen to a flight. If you are Aviophobic, your worst enemy could very well be your own imagination. The more vivid it is, the more formidable the foe would become.

As MAS Trying To Turnaround, SIA Posted S$375 Million Net Profit

Here is a news to sleep the night over with:

SINGAPORE - Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Thursday its net profit fell 14.6 percent in its third quarter to December from a year ago as expenses ballooned due to soaring jet fuel costs.

The net profit of S$397 million (US$244m) compared with S$465 million for the same period last year, but was higher than analysts' forecasts of between S$314 million and S$380 million.

Expenditures expanded 14.1 percent, outpacing the 11.1 percent year-on-year growth in revenue which totalled S$3.557 billion, SIA said in a statement. (Source: Channel News Asia)

Now, that is not a small profit. Its equivalent to RM833 million and that is not yet for the full fiscal year. In contrast, Malaysia Airlines is still trying to turnaround after registering a loss of RM367.7 million in the quarter ended September 2005.

It doesn't feel good in the heart thinking about the two contrasting scenario. It's like living in a dipalidated hut next to a rich neighbour and the neighbour had just brought in their spanking new SUV. I can only wish Idris Jala all the best.