My Life With Aviophobia... (1)

If you are afraid to fly, I sincerely hope you can overcome it because I know for a fact, aviophobia is not something easy to deal with.

I've been afraid of flying ever since I took my first flight. That was in 1985 and imagine the difficulties I had to endure each time I need to fly -- each and every flight during the 21 years or so, or an average of 15 flights a year since then.

There were times, especially during a particularly rough flight, that I wished I could tell the pilot to just land to the nearest airport and wait for the weather to clear before continuing with the flight. There were even times when I had wished that aircraft was never invented.

That is how "chronic" is my fear of flying but according to what I've read, there were many others whose phobia were even more profound than mine.

I can only hope they would be able to overcome the fear in whatever ways that work.

Plane With 200 Passengers Crashes in Rusia, Over 150 Feared Dead

Oh no! Another plane crash! From Reuters, via NZHerald.

Plane with 200 passengers crashes in Russia
Sunday July 9, 2006

LONDON - More than 150 people are feared dead after a plane with 200 people on board crashed in Russia today, news agencies reported.

The Interfax agency reported that the Airbus A-310 passenger plane on a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk was carrying 192 passengers and eight crew members when it crashed in Irkutsk.

The agency said that the plane crashed during the final approach to Irkutsk, where it overran the runway, hit a concrete fence, crashed into a building and caught fire.

AP news agency quoted Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova as saying 43 people had been taken to a hospital and another 10 had managed to escape but that most of the other passengers were feared dead.

"The aircraft veered off the runway on landing. It was travelling at a terrific speed," Andrianova said.

The plane hit a concrete barrier, collapsing the front section of the aircraft, she said. It then burst into flames.

It took five emergency services more than two hours to extinguish the flames, Andrianova said.

-- REUTERS