The Aviator

Pilot Says Fear of Flying Misunderstood

2009-04-19T22:57:00.013+08:00

During the dormant period of this blog, an airline pilot and licensed therapist, Capt Tom Bunn, came by and left a comment on this post which I think deserves an entry by itself. Below is his comment. Also watch the YouTube clip for his invaluable opinion on the cause of fear of flying and how to deal with it.

He says: "There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the cause of fear of flying. It is not caused by a bad flight; most people on a bad flight don't develop fear of flying. Difficulty with flying is caused by insufficient ability to regulate feelings when facing uncertainty.

Research since the advent of the functional MRI just eight years ago has helps us understand how the brain works. We now recognize that the ability to regulate feelings is learned and that the part of the brain that does this regulation requires stimulation of the right kind during the first two years of life. The right kind of stimulation requires a caregiver who is emphatically attuned to the infant and responds to the infants signals, rather than simply providing for the infant according to an agenda set by the caregiver.

If the child is afraid, the caregiver needs to tune into the child's fear in a way the child really knows the caregiver feels the same way. Thus the child knows he or she is not alone.

Then, the magic happens; the caregiver then lets the child know that -- though the child's fear is 100% shared -- the adult has an additional point of view, which is that it is not the end of the world; it will work out alright.

Many of us, obviously, didn't get such optimal early development. Thus, when facing uncertainty, we control our anxiety by being in control of the situation, or by having a way to out of it.

That works fairly well on the ground -- except for annoying those who regard us as control freaks. But when flying, there is uncertainty, of course. And, not being in control and not having a way out, there is no way to regulate the feelings.

Therapists try to help with CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), but anxiety can develop so rapidly that CBT techniques cannot keep up with the anxiety build-up.

Hypnosis is pretty "hit or miss". If it helps on one flight, it can fail to help on another flight.

Medications are not to be recommended -- according to the World Health Organization -- because when sedated, the passenger doesn't move around enough to protect against DVT, Deep Vein Thrombosis. If a DVT clot forms, it is a serious and potentially life-threatening problem.

Also, use of medications -- according to research -- is only helpful in very mild cases of fear of flying. In more severe cases, medications make the flight worse!"

Cheap Dubai-Malaysia Return Flights From At USD29

2009-04-17T17:00:00.004+08:00

Malaysia Airlines is taking the low-cost flight game seriously and is offering an unbelievably low price of about USD29 for Dubai-Malaysia return flight.

Bernama reported that the Malaysian flag carrier is offering return airfares from as low as 1,070 dirhams (100 dirhams = RM95.16) to Malaysia, 1,100 dirhams to Association of South-East Asian Nations destinations and 2,000 dirhams to Australia, exclusive of taxes and surcharges.

Merina Abu Tahir, MAS regional general manager for Middle East and Africa, said the low fares and best deals had been lined up for customers to experience a five-star journey.

The tickets are available during the Malaysia Airlines Travel Fair 2009 from Apr 19 to May 5, 2009. The travel period starts from Apr 19 to June 15, 2009, and from Aug 20 to Sept 30.

Test Shows I Have "Moderate Fear" of Flying

2009-04-17T15:52:00.010+08:00

According to a test I've taken today, my fear of flying is at "moderate" level (see table below).

A total of 4,423 people have taken the test, of whom 3,926 are fearful, including me. My score after taking the test is between 99-50, at the higher end of the moderate level.

How about you? Assess your fear, here, courtersy of the Flying Without Fear website.

Can You Blog Away Fear of Flying?

2009-04-17T13:18:00.013+08:00

I don't know about you but in my case, blogging about my fear of flying helps to relieve some of the anxiety.

I used to fly frequently and it was during those times that I started this blog to share my experience in dealing with the fear of flying. Now that I no longer fly as often, I have also stopped blogging regularly.

As you can see in the archive, there is only one entry in the whole of 2007 and only two last year.

Fear of flying is returning

Now, I will have to fly again and the prospect of having to board an airplane is making me all jittery. There will be four flights of about two hours and 30 minutes each which I am going to take within this next 10 weeks; and even as I type this I could feel the sense of apprehension growing in me.

The anxiety is now returning. It can be argued that this could be due to the fact that I have not flown for quite sometime.

But based on my experience, frequent flying will not help ease the anxiety. If one already has the fear, it will stay with the person no matter how many times you fly a week. The only thing that can help to relieve the fear is to deal with it mentally.

How to deal with the fear of flying?

I wish I could provide the answer but based on my experience in dealing with aviophobia -- a weird name for a fear -- we can help ease the tension by dealing with it head on.

My way of head-on dealing is to read extensively about the topic, learn all I can about flight safety and then discuss about it in this blog.

Sometimes, for a strange reason, I do look forward to the prospect of flying because I would then have the materials to blog about.

I guess, if you can melt the ice caps by performing searches on Google (Google has refuted this, here), then perhaps you can also blog away the fear of flying.

Boeing Delivers 6,000th 737

2009-04-17T12:59:00.002+08:00

Boeing today celebrated the delivery of the 6,000th 737 aircraft to International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) which will lease the 737 to Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA.

The airplane's tail features are a special decal denoting this milestone.

"We couldn't be more pleased about being part of this important milestone for the 737. With its continuous innovations, the Next-Generation 737 brings the right combination of operational and environmental performance to address the requirements of our markets," Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA's chief executive officer Bjorn Kjos said in a statement released in Seattle.

Norwegian Air Shuttle is the largest low-fare airline company in the Scandinavian region and has a route portfolio that stretches across Europe into North Africa and the Middle East.

Norwegian has 39 737s in its fleet and an additional 42 on firm order with Boeing.

"ILFC's very first Boeing delivery was a 737 and since then we've taken delivery of more than 400 of this outstanding model, re-ordering incremental airplanes dozens of times," said ILFC chairman and chief executive officer Steven F. Udvar-Hazy.

"The Next-Generation 737 is a major cornerstone to ILFC's modern, fuel-efficient and economical portfolio of more than 1,000 commercial jets," he said.

Boeing says it remains focused on continuous enhancement of the next-generation 737 family to ensure the airplane provides market-leading operational, economic and environmental performance to airlines and lessors around the world.

"It is exciting to deliver our 6,000th 737 to ILFC and Norwegian Air Shuttle, and we thank them for being among the hundreds of airlines, operators and leasing companies that have made the 737 the world's most popular jet airliner," said Mark Jenkins, vice-president and general manager of 737 Airplane Programmes.

To date, unfilled orders for the Next-Generation 737 exceed 2,200 airplanes valued at approximately US$163 billion at list prices.

More Malaysia-Singapore Low Cost Flights

2009-04-14T23:13:00.004+08:00

Singapore and Malaysia are expanding further their bilateral air services agreement to include six more new destinations in Malaysia.

They are Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Melaka, Sandakan and Tawau in addition to the existing routes covering Penang, Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

Both countries also agreed to provide increased traffic rights to existing cities, namely Penang, Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

All the new traffic rights will take effect from June 1, the Singapore Transport Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said transport officials from the city-state and Malaysia met here today for air services consultations and agreed to expand the bilateral air services agreement between the two neighbours.

The new agreement would allow the carriers of both countries the right to operate between Changi Airport and the six destinations, the ministry was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Singapore carriers will also have traffic rights to operate 21 weekly services to Ipoh and 14 weekly services each to Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Melaka, Sandakan and Tawau.

For existing routes, Singapore carriers will have increased traffic rights to operate a total of 70 services a week to Penang and 27 services a week to Langkawi.

Additionally, carriers of both countries are also allowed to operate an additional 14 weekly services between Singapore and each of the East Malaysian cities of Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

Singapore carriers operate 106 weekly services to Kuala Lumpur, 18 weekly services to Penang, six weekly services to Langkawi, 17 weekly services to Kota Kinabalu and 16 weekly services to Kuching.

Langkawi-Singapore Low-cost Flight Soon

2009-04-05T09:08:00.002+08:00

Asia's biggest budget carrier, AirAsia, will launch Langkawi-Singapore direct flight soon.

This follows government go-ahead recently, Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat said. "We will leave it to AirAsia to assess the situation and decide on the frequency of flights," he said.

Meanwhile, AirAsia has been voted the world's best low-cost carrier by British-based consultancy group Skytrax at the recent Aircraft Interiors Expo 2009 in Hamburg, Germany.

The Star reports that the award was conferred based on the results of the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax, conducted between August 2008 and March this year from respondents of diverse nationalities.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes was elated at AirAsia's selection.

"We have won numerous awards but this one is very special. Even though AirAsia is a low-cost carrier, it has high quality products," he said.

Burying All The Tragedy

2008-03-20T09:49:00.002+08:00

There has been a lot of entry about air crashes in this blog, which still remains on the front page, which I want to bury.

I no longer want it visible on the front page but would not delete it either. Let it remain there to chronicle the development of this blog. One thing I would do is to quickly post a series of blog entries to make it fall off the main page.

I want to move on and if I want to ever hope of overcoming my fear of flying, it's not good to think or write or blog about each and every air crash as they happens. There are a thousand of other things about flying, other than crashing.

A Year Ago As The Crow Flies

2008-03-20T00:49:00.003+08:00

I couldn't believe it's already over a year since I last made a promise to revamp this blog and introduce a new concept -- a concept which has been slow in coming; but it's here finally.

So, what would be the new concept of this blog? Well, let's just say it would be about aviation in general. I shall be talking about the aviation industry, with focus on safety and security as well as new technology, and at the same time still blog about my fear of flying.

I'm still afraid of flying no matter how often I fly. In September last year, I took a 7-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney. The flight was smooth except for the occasional slight turbulence; and my goodness, if not for my strong heart, I would've suffered a heart seizure during the flight.

How I hated my fear, and wished that I was as brave as others.

Back to the concept of this blog, yes, I had thought long about turning this blog into a full-fledged aviation blog and I think by now, I had a clearer picture of what should I do here.

Aviation would the a niche for this blog, which is one of several blogs authored by me. I also run a make money blog, a macro photography blog, an official blog, a blog about my struggle in learning English, another about Borneo and a personal blog.

Now that's a lot blog writing, you might say. I can tell you, it is. In a way, that has been part of the reasons why I haven't been able to update this blog since the past one year or so; I was just too busy blogging away in several of my hosted blogs.

Soon... A New Concept For This Blog

2007-02-04T22:40:00.000+08:00

I started this blog with the title "I Believe I'm Afraid To Fly", then after receiving feedback from some of the commentators here, I changed it to "Aviophobic Anonymous".

At the outset, I intend to use this blog to chronicle my fear of flying, hence the titles. I was hoping that by writing about my flying "demon", I could come to term with it, so to speak. After months of blogging about it, I realised there's nothing much I could do to overcome the problem.
So I see no point in continuing to blog about my fear of flying. I think I've got to learn to accept the reality that I would never be able to become completely free of my fear.

So, after a five-month hiatus, I've decided to reactivate this blog and at the same time take it towards a new direction perhaps; or to its cruising altitude, if you will.

So, what would the new concept be? If you read this, you are welcome to suggest about the topics I should be blogging here. In the meantime, though, I intend to make this blog as a place to write about the aviation industry in general. I may still want to write about my fear of flying but that would not be the main subject of this blog anymore.

Now I just need to think about a new title for this blog to better reflect its new direction.

Twenty-nine Dead As Passenger Plane Catches Fire On Landing

2006-09-02T08:33:00.000+08:00

Twenty-nine people were killed in Iran when a passenger plane caught fire after landing, reports AFP:

TEHERAN: Twenty-nine people were killed yesterday when an Iranian airliner caught fire after landing in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the civil aviation chief said, lowering earlier reports of up to 80 dead.

Talking to state television, the Civil Aviation Organisation’s Nurollah Rezai Niaraki said 29 bodies had been recovered from the plane, 43 people were injured and the rest of the 148 people on board survived unhurt.

State television had earlier said the death toll on the flight to Mashhad from the southern port city of Bandar Abbas was at least 80.

Niaraki also said that since the flight crew survived the crash, a better understanding on the cause of the accident would surface.

Previously, state media reported that the Russian-made Tupolev 154 skidded off the runway and crashed into the nearby barriers, leaving gaping holes in the fuselage.

The incident was the latest tragedy to hit Iran’s aviation industry, whose fleet is made up largely of Soviet or old Western planes owing to the US sanctions imposed after the Islamic revolution in 1979.

According to figures published in the Iranian media and not counting yesterday’s accident, more than 1,460 people were killed in 17 air crashes in the past 25 years, including an Iranian plane shot down over the Gulf by a US warship in 1988.

The first television pictures showed the plane, owned by the Iran Airtours carrier, lying flat without its wheels on the outskirts of the airport, with one huge hole burned out in the centre of the fuselage.

An Iranian civil aviation official was quoted in the media as saying the plane did not ask for an emergency landing before the accident. — AFP

NBC Regrets Emmy Award Airing Of "Mock Plane Crash" Sketch

2006-08-29T18:29:00.000+08:00

NBC has finally owned up to its "blunder" and expressed regret over the airing of Emmy Awards comedy that include a mock plane crash. The Associated Press, via Toronto Sun reports:

NBC expressed regret yesterday for an Emmy Awards comedy skit that included a mock plane crash and aired on the network the evening of a fatal Kentucky jetliner accident.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the many families who lost loved ones in the plane crash in Kentucky on Sunday, and to the entire community that has suffered this terrible loss," NBC said in a statement the day after the ceremony.

"In no way would we ever want to make light of this terrible tragedy," NBC said. "The filmed opening during the Emmy telecast was meant to spoof some of television's most well-known scenes. The timing was unfortunate, and we regret any unintentional pain it may have caused."

The pre-recorded skit was broadcast as part of the live Emmy ceremony just hours after a commuter jet crashed into a field and burst into flames, killing 49 people.

Criticism of the sequence appeared on websites Sunday night, including the Los Angeles Times', with a columnist for the paper calling it "cringe-inducing" and "of questionable taste."

Those of you who have seen the sketch, what do you think? Do you think it was that bad? I actually watched it last night and thought that it was quite funny. I didn't realise there was an air crash, though. I might've seen it in different light had I known about the air crash.

Sometimes When I Look At The Clouds...

2006-08-15T16:52:00.000+08:00

Sometimes when I look at dark clouds closing in from all directions, I can feel my heart pounding. I guess my brain was in turmoil trying to make sense of what the eyes transmitted for it to interprete. This is not a good day to fly, it could be telling the heart. And so the heart pounded in protest.

But why on earth am I worried about the dark clouds when my flight is still weeks away? It's irrational, this fear of flying. Too irrational to comprenend!

Shhh... Don't Tell The Children

2006-08-14T18:49:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I wish I had the ignorance of a child who can't think of nothing else except to enjoy a flight, no matter how rough it might be. I still remember my first flight; about how excited I was with the prospect of being high up there among the clouds -- something I had long wished for.

It's a different story now -- I wish I could avoid a flight but that seems impossible simply because it has become a necessity to fly every now and then because the job requires me to do so.

Which brings me to the subject of whether it is proper to discuss about aviophobia within the earshot of the children. But my guess is, we'd better not. Let the children enjoy the flight for as long as they could -- for a lifetime if possible -- and never to be bothered by all the worries of an aviophobic.

And because of that I think I had made mistakes by talking infront of the children about how afraid I was during a particularly rough flight. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have tainted the ignorance of a child about the possibility of a flight being in danger.

I am now worried that I had unwittingly cultivated the fear of flying on the child concerned who had just discovered how exciting it is to be flying.

I guess I had better check my mouth and while I was at it, check my fear as well.

Bad English Costs The Lives Of Over 1,500 People

2006-08-13T16:56:00.000+08:00

Bad English can be as deadly as a live bomb placed on an aircraft. According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), over 1,500 air crew and passengers lost their lives in accidents because of the lack of proficiency in Aeronautical English on the part of the airlines crew.

[Source: The Australian]

All 189 member states of ICAO are required to meet these new English proficiency standards by March 2008.

Aviphobic people like us would like to welcome the initiative by the ICAO and call for transparency in the process of assessing the Aeronautical English-proficiency of airlines crew around the world. Further read, here!

And another thing, those with my level of English proficiency need not apply for any jobs in the aviation industry, particularly those that are related to flight safety, however remote the relation that job with safety might be!

Mass Murder "Plane Bomb" Plot Foiled

2006-08-11T09:37:00.000+08:00

British authorities said it has folied a "mass murder" plot by blowing up several aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean to the US. Reuters via The Star today:

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested 24 people in overnight raids and said on Thursday they had foiled a plot to commit "mass murder" by blowing up several aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean to the United States.

Tough new security measures brought chaos to airports on both sides of the Atlantic in what U.S. President George W. Bush described as a stark reminder his country was at "war with Islamic fascists".

Airports were in near chaos as departure halls were jammed with people, waiting as airlines cancelled flights and trying to sort out their bags as hand luggage and liquids were banned from flights and passengers with babies were made to publicly taste their food.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Malaysia Airlines flights to London will operate as scheduled.

Airlines Tighten Cabin Baggage Rules After London's "Plane Bomb" Scare

2006-08-11T08:29:00.000+08:00

Airlines in the region have tightened screenings on cabin baggages, banning liquids in cabins except for a few items such as milk and medications in the wake of a "mass murder" plane bomb plot uncovered in the United Kingdom yesterday.

The plotters were said to be planning to carry the components of the bombs, including liquid explosive ingredients and detonating devices, disguised as beverages, electronic devices or other common objects. According to Singapore Airlines, items that are allowed in cabins on flights from the United Kingdom are:

Pocket-size wallets and pocket-size purses plus contents (for example money, credit cards, identity cards etc (not handbags)
Travel documents essential for the journey (for example passports and travel tickets)
Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg. diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic
Spectacles and sunglasses, without cases
Contact lens holders, without bottles of solution
For those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger) and sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight (nappies, wipes, creams and nappy disposal bags)
Female sanitary items sufficient and essential for the flight, if unboxed (eg. tampons, pads, towels and wipes)
Tissues (unboxed) and/or handkerchiefs
Keys (but no electrical key fobs)
All passengers must be hand searched, and their footwear and all the items they are carrying must be X-ray screened.

For flights to and from the United States:

Baby formula, breast milk or juice for a small child or infant;
Prescription medicines bearing the name that matches that of the passenger’s ticket;
Insulin and other essential non-prescription medicines

No liquids or gels apart from those listed above, and including drinks or items purchased at the airport can be taken on board the aircraft. Beverages, shampoo, suntan lotions, creams, toothpaste, hair gel and other items of a similar consistency are not permitted in the cabin. These items must be carried in checked baggage.

The latest scare is not good. Not good at all for people with aviophobic like me.

Thai New Airport Has 29 "High Risk" Areas

2006-08-08T06:37:00.000+08:00

Thai's soon-to-be open ultra-modern airport has many high risk areas, says ICAO. Via People's Daily Online:

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has questioned the readiness of Thailand's new Suvarnabhumi airport for its official opening slated on Sept 28, citing "high risk" areas in a report sent to Thai aviation authority, media in Bangkok said Friday.

The ICAO report, based on its information collected and observations made between June and early July, identifies 29 high- risk areas, or about one-third of the 93 items on its checklist, while 43 others are rated as medium-risk and the rest low-risk, according to Thai newspaper Bangkok Post, which quoted the ICAO report sent to Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT), an agency under the Transport Ministry overseeing international airports, including Suvarnabhumi.

Among the high-risk items identified are the "airfield visual aides" including taxiway, apron and airside road signs, lights and markings.

Failure to address them could lead to unsafe ground operations which "may contribute to an aircraft incident or accident", the report says.

But Thailand aviation authority said it will go ahead with the plan to open the airport as acheduled.

Configured For Landing

2006-08-02T23:16:00.000+08:00

Aviophobia and Stage Fright

2006-08-01T08:15:00.000+08:00

Do you think there is a co-relation between the fear of flying and the fear of public speaking? That people who are aviophobic are also afraid of speaking in front of audience?

Could be, could be not. Perhaps someone should conduct a study on this. Maybe if we can cure the stage fright, we can also cure the fear of flying in the process.

My Life With Aviophobia... (1)

2006-07-31T15:00:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-09T12:22:00.000+08:00

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

Flying On June 18-21

2006-06-12T14:59:00.000+08:00

Will be flying out of base this June 18 and return four days later. The last time I took a flight was in early January this year. So it a six-month interval between the last and my next flight.

I don't feel any apprehension. It's just a short flight away -- 50 minutes at the most. I just hope that the weather will be fine during those period.

On the other hand, I am actually thrilled by the prospect of taking to the air again!

This does not mean I have overcame my Aviophobia. Let's see...

Lightning Strikes Plane Carrying Kennedy

2006-05-15T12:30:00.000+08:00

Via the Associated Press, May 13:

BOSTON – A plane carrying U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from western Massachusetts to his home on the coast was struck by lightning and had to be diverted to New Haven, Conn., his spokeswoman said.

The eight-seat Cessna Citation 550 plane lost all electrical power, including communications, and the pilot had to fly the plane manually, according to spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner. No one was hurt.

The Democrat had just delivered the commencement address at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and was on his way to his Cape Cod home when the plane was struck around 4 p.m., she said.

The jet landed safely at New Haven at 4:11 p.m., said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray. A report was filed with the agency, which will look into the incident, she said.

Kennedy planned to stay in Connecticut overnight because he was scheduled to return to western Massachusetts on Sunday to deliver a commencement address at Springfield College, Wagoner said.

Hmm... so a plane can still fly even after losing all its electrical power.

If I Am Super Rich...

2006-05-02T02:31:00.000+08:00

I'd be flying around the world in one of these...

Embraer Legacy Executive Jet

Gulfstream Executive Jet
But I am not even rich... let alone super!

Flying Low

2006-04-24T07:18:00.000+08:00

I've not been flying much nowadays and that worries me. The last time I took a flight was in January onboard AirAsia from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to Senai, Johor Bahru.

The weather was bad then but having been on such a flight for several times prior to the last flight, I was kind of gotten used to the turbulence.

But that was four months ago. I've been on the safe, hard ground ever since, and four months I feel is too long for my own good.

Sooner or later I would be flying again and being on a safe ground all these while, I wouldn't know what to expect the next time I fly. Would I be scared like before? Would I be treating it like any other flights I've taken?

Aircraft Toilet Cleaners

2006-04-16T09:12:00.000+08:00

Take cover. The shit has hit the fan, or shall I say, has rained down from among the clouds?

In a story datelined Kuala Lumpur, flight attendants demanded an apology from local movie producer over a scene referring to air stewardesses as "toilet cleaners". Via The Malay Mail:

KUALA LUMPUR: The producers of local comedy film Buli Balik may find themselves staring at a lawsuit for allegedly ridiculing flight stewardesses in the recent box-office hit.

The Malaysia Airlines Flight Attendants Association (MAFAA) has taken exception to a scene in the movie where an actress refers to stewardesses as "toilet cleaners".

The allegedly offensive scene shows a female patient waiting to see a psychiatrist, played by Harith Iskandar, remarking: "Orang ni, kalau sebutnya stewardess nak mengoratlah dan tulah... pencuci toilet aja diatas tu" (This person, if you mention stewardess, he wants to tackle and such... only a toilet cleaner up there").

MAFAA secretary-general Ismail Nasamuddin A.W. Maxwell said it was unbecoming of the film's producers and director, Afdlin Shauki, to belittle the profession of a flight attendant by equating it to that of a toilet cleaner.

"It is an insult to our profession. We are not toilet cleaners. The producers and director of the movie owe us a public apology for making such disparaging remarks about our profession," said Ismail in a statement yesterday. [...]

He said it was wrong to portray such a negative image of flight attendants as certain aspects of their job were on par with those of airline pilots especially when it came to the safety of passengers, adding that they had saved the lives of many passengers during emergencies in the past.

"Many cabin crew members now are highly educated people..."

Afdlin Shauki who blogs here, replied:

Are the cabin crew association so insecure about their own profession that they have to justify that they are at par with airline pilots? in my mind they have a great profession. They get to travel, meet many people and at the same time...[Afdlin Shauki: Much Ado About Toilet Cleaning?]

Air stewards and stewardesses out there, have your say. Do you feel insulted by the remark?

Non-air stewards and stewardesses, and non-toilet cleaners out there, ponder this question: would you feel insulted if someone were to call you a toilet cleaner?

Will the real toilet cleaners out there stand up and have your voice heard?

Ah... I've Landed

2006-03-15T22:36:00.000+08:00

Overcoming Aviophobia: A Self Help

2006-02-22T07:19:00.000+08:00

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

2006-02-20T18:00:00.000+08:00

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

2006-02-13T13:23:00.000+08:00

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

2006-02-06T01:18:00.000+08:00

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

2006-02-02T19:25:00.000+08:00

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.

Alive And Flying

2006-01-14T08:19:00.000+08:00

The irony of blogging about flight scare or aviophobia is that when the blogger stops posting for an extended period of time, his readers -- if there was one, surely there was one -- tend to perceive that he was no longer afraid to fly and therefore there was no longer the necessity to go on blogging about it; or that he had already died.

Wasn't there a plane accident recently? Was he in the flight? His reader might wonder.

I am alive though. Alive and flying, very often the past two months. You know the weather was not particularly kind during those period of the year in this part of the world and flights were often rough, but here I am. Intact.

Mocking Clouds

2005-12-15T08:49:00.000+08:00

Mocking CloudsThe A330 meandered in between the clouds, skirting the heavy ones and trying as far as possible not to ram directly onto it.

I guess pilots are taught to respect this weather phenomenon and not to try to challenge it by purposedly ramming jetliners onto it, unless there were no other ways to skirt around it, so I was told. I would have to verify this. I do know for sure about one thing, clouds are contributors to air turbulence.

Anyway, I think they have a name for it -- the cloud formations I mean, not the aircraft manouevre. I can tell a Cumulonimbus anytime when I see one. As for the rest of the brood -- Nimbostartus, Cirrocumulus and Altostratus, well I guess I need to read more in order to learn more. I know one thing though -- all clouds are Latin.

The cloud naming system was invented in 1892 by an Englishman Luke Howard. It comprises of two parts -- first to describe the altitude or the heights where the cloud were forming and the second, to describe the shape. The part that describes the heights are: cirro, high clouds above 20,000 feet; and alto, mid level clouds between 6,000 - 20,000 feet. There is no prefix for low level clouds.

The names denoting shapes are: cirrus mean curly or fibrous, stratus means layered, while cumulus means lumpy or piled. Nimbo or nimbus is added to indicate that a cloud can produce precipitation.

After a slight turbulence -- enough to scare an aviophobic like me -- the aircraft landed smoothly on the runway of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. As the A330 taxied to the terminal building, I looked out of the window and wondered what the clouds would have done had they were a living being. I guess they would have mock me all the way throughout the flight for being afraid to fly.

Hell, the clouds were mocking me even after I landed safely. I could see them reassembling to form what could have been the shape of a middle finger! WTF! Who do you think you are? Cumulusdickus?

Flying Again

2005-11-27T08:04:00.000+08:00

Bandar Maharani, Johor, MalaysiaI am flying again today, to the north, that is. It's just a short flight by A330 and to tell you the truth, I am looking forward to it. I don't feel apprehensive at all about the flight I am to take at 1.30pm from Changi Airport to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

That is not to say I've overcome my fear of flying. I guess it's still there only this time there's something inside that makes me want to enjoy the flight. Afterall it's just a 55-minute flight, including the time taken to taxi to and from the runway on both ends of the journey.

I guess it's just a mood swing. As I've come to realise, fear manifests itself in a varying intensity. I can have no fear of flying in one day, and completely freak out in another. In fact, there were days I can become jittery just by thinking about a flight. Mind you, I can become afraid to fly even when my feet are planted firmly on the ground. That's quite irrational, to say the least.

If I can become irrational on the ground, heck I can become irrational on the air. I guess, most fears are irrational, I can tell you that much. Anyway, subject to clearance from the air traffic controller, I should already be lounging around KLIA by 2.30pm.

The Business Of Being Busy

2005-11-19T13:37:00.000+08:00

Ah, It's been a busy week. I hardly had the time to update this blog and when I did, I was already too tired and too drained out of creative energy to do anything with the the string of thoughts that come to mind. So I shall just let the thoughts float around for a while.

There are some pending things to do in relation with this blog: write emails to friends to discuss about aviophobia, blog about the test flights of Airbus A380 superjumbo to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and the problem with Malaysia Airlines which revenue seemed to be nosediving at an alarming speed.

Can somebody help throttle the company up, please? Then there is also the coming onboard of Sarawakian executive Idris Jala to be the Managing Director of Malaysia Airlines in December. May he be the one who could put Malaysia Airlines back into the black.

There are so many things to blog. Alas, here I am...letting things to be overtaken by events.

Fly Off Fear. Can We?

2005-11-12T12:29:00.000+08:00

Marita Paige of A Leaf Off The Page of Marita's Life ask me in her comment, do I fly a lot. I don't.

That probably is one of the factors contributing to my flying woes. I don't fly often and therefore I can't get used to being on a flight. Therefore, I am afraid to fly. It's like meeting someone new. If you get to meet that someone often, you can become comfortable with that person.

But I had flown in many types of air transporters -- from 8-seater and 12-seater light aircrafts which I've forgotten the make, to the Fokker 50 and the commercial passenger planes by Boeing and Airbus. Had also been on a de Haviland Beechcraft flights and C130 militry transport aircraft. Island-hopping on Nuri helicopter, criss-crossing Sabah on a Bell helicopters in the 90's, and circling around Mount Kinabalu on a Russian made Mi-17 helicopter.

The longest flight I've flown so far was in 2003 along this route: Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam-Stockholm. 3 days stop. Then Stockholm-Nice. 3 days stop. Then Nice-Paris-Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu.

Not a single incident happened on those flights. Still, I am afraid to fly. Even a short 25 minutes of flight from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan can freak me out.

Perhaps it's because I had also seen crash sites, smelled the smell of charred bodies of air crash victims.

A Proven Cure For Aviophobia?

2005-11-09T07:00:00.000+08:00

Psychologists believe Aviophobia or the fear of flying is curable. The rate of success can be high -- experts estimated that about 90 per cent of those who seek treatment, can actually wake up in the morning, take a flight and not feeling any fear at all.

The method they use is hypnotherapy. The problem is, you can't self- hypnotise. Somebody else must employ the process on you. An aviophobic reporter who had been to the hypnotherapist has written an article about it:

Sitting Out Of Fear
The fear of flying (aviophobia) is a bit irrational – you’re more likely to be killed by a donkey or a falling coconut – but it is thought to affect about 10 million UK residents to a degree.

With me, just a touch of turbulence reduces me to sobs and wide-eyed panic. And the six major air disasters this summer haven’t helped.

Dr Richard Bradley is a clinical hypnotherapist, who has been practising for 14 years. He runs clinics at Carlisle, Dumfries and Corbridge. Most of his patients are aged between their late-teens to early 20s, but he has successfully treated people as young as seven and as old as 87.

He estimates that more than 90 per cent of his patients are cured through hypnotherapy: “Some go away after a couple of sessions and never experience their problem again. Others leave with a far more positive mental attitude. However it affects you, it always helps.” [...]

Dr Bradley has treated the fear of flying hundreds of times and is confident he can help me. We begin with a preliminary chat which allows Dr Bradley to analyse me and to decide the best way to help me.

“There are two main methods of hypnosis,” said Dr Bradley. “I treat 20 per cent of my patients through classic hypnotism, where you simply tell the patient to stop doing what they are doing. For example, I would tell a smoker they are a non-smoker and when they wake up they will oblige.

“The remaining 80 per cent are treated using Erickson hypnotism, a more complex method in which I will tell a metaphorical story which is embedded with suggestions to help the patient. It’s a less obvious method which appeals to the subconscious mind".

Dr Bradley asks me to consider why I am afraid of flying. Is it a fear of small spaces or a fear of death? I tell him it is probably a bit of both. And the fact that I am a bit of a control freak. I certainly don’t like the lack of control when sitting in a plane. And probably not when I am under the control of a hypnotist, either. [...]

An hour later Dr Bradley tells me he will use the Erickson method with me. While I’m getting comfortable on the couch Dr Bradley dismisses a few of my stereotypical beliefs about hypnotism.

“Nothing strange is going to happen. I’m not going to knock you out and become a mad magician. There are a lot of misconceptions about hypnotism. Television and entertainment would have you believe that we are in control and you won’t remember anything, but hypnotherapy is actually more about encouraging you to take control.”

My next 35 minutes are spent under hypnosis. Dr Bradley’s soothing voice lulls me into a semi-sleep and he talks me through the process, telling me I’ll feel light and relaxed or heavy and numbed, but relaxed. I feel the latter. It is a case of lying on the couch, listening to his words and using my imagination.

It is a pleasant experience that instilled a calmness in me. But has it helped me tackle my fear? As yet, I can’t be sure. My next flight is at Christmas.

The calmness I felt during the session remains and I am taking a far more positive outlook when reading about the horrors of a plane crash. [Source: News & Star, UK. Oct 19, 2005]

The rest of the article, here!

Thank You: Minishorts, Peter Tan, BlogsMalaysia

2005-11-08T07:23:00.000+08:00

Hey, someone found my blog and posted it on the newly launched BlogsMalaysia.com. Thank you minishorts, for submitting my article and thank you Peter Tan for publishing it.

Aviophobic Anonymous, is, in their own words "rather intriguing and educational":

Weather You Like It or Not... It isn't every day that someone starts a blog to chronicle his experiences of living with aviophobia (fear of flying). Aviophobic is a fresh cut off the crop, and his blog is rather intriguing and educational.

Hmm...I guess I would have to live up to that "rather intriguing and educational" tag from now on, or else, Aviophobic Anonymous would perish, just like a doomed aircraft.

Aviophobic Anonymous

2005-11-06T06:54:00.000+08:00

After two month of blogging about Aviophobia or the fear of flying and taking into consideration some of the comments here, I've decided today to "revamp" this blog, first by having its name changed from "I Believe I Am Afraid To Fly" to "Aviophobic Anonymous".

I will also edit some of the entries here to reflect a more positive attitude towards the safety of air transportation. The grammatical mistakes will still be there after the editing, I reckon, but that can't really be helped. I find English grammer as difficult to comprehend as the fear of flying itself.

Next possible entry: When a child is afraid to fly, what can the accompanying parents (who are also aviophobic) do to help calm the situation? Views and comments are welcomed.

Nigerian Air Crash Kills 117 (Edited Version)

2005-10-24T08:10:00.000+08:00

Here's a piece of news that could aggravate aviophobia. A passenger aircraft crashes yet again. From Reuters:

All 117 likely killed in Nigerian air crash
LISSA, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian airliner with 117 people aboard crashed and disintegrated in flames shortly after take-off from Lagos and there was no sign of survivors, officials and the Nigerian Red Cross said on Sunday.
Dismembered and burned body parts, fuselage fragments and engine parts were strewn over an area the size of a football field near the village of Lissa, about 30 km north of Lagos.
Video grab shows the crash site of the Nigerian airliner in Lissa, about 30 km north of Lagos, October 23, 2005. (REUTERS/Nigerian Television Authority via Reuters TV)
"The aircraft has crashed and it is a total loss. We can't even see a whole human body," a senior police official said at the scene. The Bellview Airlines plane, which left Lagos on Saturday night on a scheduled flight to the capital Abuja, left a smoking 70 foot crater in the marshy earth, uprooted trees and blew the roofs off nearby houses.
"I can't confirm if there are any survivors, but there is no trace so far," Red Cross General Secretary Abiodun Orebiyi told Reuters after visiting the scene. "The plane was totally destroyed. It was scattered everywhere."
A wig, human intestines, clothes, foam seats and a hand were visible wedged in the sodden earth. A cheque for 948,000 naira ($7,300) from the evangelical Deeper Life church was one of a number of personal papers found in the smouldering wreckage.
A U.S. official confirmed that a U.S. military officer was aboard the aircraft. [...]
Bellview Airlines flight 210 left at 8:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) and lost contact minutes later during a heavy electrical storm. It was carrying 111 passengers and six crew, the Federal Airport Authority said, updating an earlier figure of 110 passengers.
The pilot made a distress call after take-off, indicating the plane had a technical problem, a source at the presidency told Reuters.

Ten Deadliest Air Crashes In History (Edited Version)

2005-10-24T07:06:00.000+08:00

Here's just for the record the 10 deadliest air crashes in history:

1. Tenerife
27 March 1977
Number of people killed: 583
Two Boeing 747s, operated by KLM and Pan Am, collide on a foggy runway at Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands. The KLM jet departed without permission, striking the Pan Am jet as it taxied along the same runway. Confusion over instructions and a blockage of radio transmissions contributed to the crash.

2. Mount Fuji
12 August 1985
Number of people killed: 520
A Japan Air Lines 747 crashes near Mount Fuji after takeoff from Tokyo on a domestic flight. The rupture of an aft bulkhead, which had undergone faulty repairs following a mishap seven years earlier, caused the destruction of part of the aeroplane's tail and rendered the jet uncontrollable. A JAL maintenance supervisor later committed suicide, while the president of the airline resigned, accepting full responsibility for the crash and visiting victims' families to offer a personal apology.

3. Delhi
12 November 1996
Number of people killed: 349
An Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane from Kazakhstan collides in midair with a Saudia 747 near Delhi, India. The Kazakh crew had disobeyed instructions, and neither aircraft was equipped with collision-avoidance technology.

4. Orly
3 March 1974
Number of people killed: 346
A THY (Turkish Airlines) DC-10 crashes near Orly airport outside Paris. A poorly designed cargo door burst from its latches, leading to rapid depressurisation, failure of the cabin floor and impairment of cables to the rudders and elevators. Out of control, the plane slammed into woods northeast of Paris. McDonnell Douglas, maker of the DC-10, which would see even more controversy later, was forced to redesign its cargo door system.

5. Ireland
23 June 1985
Number
of people killed: 329
A bomb planted by Sikh extremists blows up an Air India 747 en route from Toronto to Bombay. The plane fell into the sea east of Ireland. Investigators in Canada cited shortcomings in baggage screening procedures, screening equipment, and employee training. A second bomb, intended to blow up another Air India 747 on the same day, detonated prematurely in a luggage facility in Tokyo before being loaded aboard.

6. Riyadh
19 August 1980
Number of people killed: 301
A Saudia L-1011 bound for Karachi returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when a fire broke out on board shortly after takeoff. For reasons never fully understood, the crew delays evacuation after a safe touchdown and the aircraft rolls to the far end of the runway before finally stopping. No evacuation is commenced, and the plane then sits with its engines running for more than three minutes. Before any doors can be opened by the inadequately equipped rescue workers at Riyadh, everyone on the widebody died as the passenger cabin is killed by a flash-fire.

7. Straits of Hormuz
3 July 1988
Number of people killed: 290
An Airbus A300 operated by Iran Air is shot down over the Straits of Hormuz by the US navy destroyer Vincennes. The US military said the crew of the Vincennes were distracted by an ongoing armed battle and mistook the A300 for a hostile military aircraft. None of the passengers or crew survived.

8. Chicago
25 May 1979
Number of people killed: 273
As an American Airlines DC-10 takes off from Chicago's O'Hare airport, an engine detaches from its mounting seriously damaging a wing. Before its crew can react, the aeroplane rolls 90 degrees and disintegrates in a fireball about a mile beyond the runway. This remains the worst-ever US crash. Both the engine pylon design and airline maintenance procedures were faulted by NTSB investigators, and all DC-10s were temporarily grounded.

9. Lockerbie
21 December 1988
Number of
people killed: 270
Pan American flight 103, explodes in the night sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all the passengers, and 11 people on the ground. Two Libyan agents are later held responsible (one is convicted) for planting a bomb aboard the aircraft.

10. Sakhalin Island
1 September 1983
Number of people killed: 269
Korean Air Lines flight KL007, a 747, from New York to Seoul (with a technical stop in Anchorage) is shot down by a Soviet fighter after drifting off course - and into Soviet airspace - near Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) later attributes the mysterious deviation to "a considerable degree of lack of alertness and attentiveness on the part of the flight crew."

A statistical breakdown also includes the following:

Number of Boeing 747s involved in the 10 crashes: seven
Number resulting from terrorist sabotage or that were shot down mistakenly: four
Number that occurred in the US: one
Number that occurred prior to 1974: nil
Number that occurred during the 1970s or 1980s: nine
Number in which pilot error can be cited as a direct or contributing cause: three
Number that crashed as a direct result of mechanical failure: three

An accident survey of 2147 aeroplane accidents from 1950 through 2004 determined the causes to be as follows:

37%: Pilot error
33%: Undetermined or missing in the record
13%: Mechanical failure
7%: Weather
5%: Sabotage (bombs, hijackings, shoot-downs)
4%: Other human error (air traffic controller error, improper loading of aircraft, improper maintenance, fuel contamination, language miscommunication, etc)
1%: Other cause

The survey excluded military, private, and charter aircraft. Sources: Wikipedia.org; Salon.com. (Article by Patrick Smith); airlinesafety.com. Extracted from an Al-Jazeera report compiled and edited by Asim Khan.

Cell Phone Man Kicked Out Of Plane

2005-10-06T15:32:00.000+08:00

This blog fully supports the action taken by the pilot of a Malaysia Airlines flight in kicking out a passenger for ignoring the instruction to switch off the mobile phone while inside the aircraft.

The passenger, according to the report, was a businessman on the way to Kota Kinabalu, which is about an hour's flight away. He kept on taking over the phone despite being repeatedly told to swith it off. Here is the story:

SIBU, Oct 5: A businessman "talked" his way out of a Malaysia Airlines flight from here to Kota Kinabalu on Monday.

The pilot ordered the businessman off the aircraft after he refused to listen to repeated requests from the crew to stop talking on his mobile phone. It is understood the man even ignored the pilot’s request to switch off the device.

The businessman was escorted off the aircraft by security officers. Flight MH2802, scheduled to take off at 9.15am, took off minutes later. It is not known if action can be taken against the man for delaying the flight. [...]

Sibu MAS manager Abdul Rahman Hassan, when contacted today, said the drama began when a passenger noticed the businessman using his handphone even as the aircraft began to roll down the runway.

The use of mobile phones on aircraft is generally forbidden during flight. One reason is that the use of the device could interfere with sensitive equipment on the aircraft. [Source: The New Straits Times]

The businessman in the report was not being helpful, even inconsiderate, to other passengers who might not be as free from the fear of flying as he. It's even unfair to the majority of other passengers who duly abide by the instruction.

I should really kick up a big fuss the next time I saw people talking on their phone inside an aircraft. You see, I don't mind being exposed to danger so long as it's worth it. Hell, we all are willing to die for a cause.

But I hate it if my safety is being put in jeopardy because of the foolishness of others!

A Short Flight North

2005-09-25T07:35:00.000+08:00

I am writing this about six hours before my flight to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore. It's just a short flight north but nevertheless a significant one becuase that would be my first since I started this blog as part of my effort to deal with Aviophobia or the fear of flying.

Previously I've refrained myself from thinking about what could go wrong in a flight so as not to aggravate the fear -- what I don't know can't hurt me -- but still I find it rather difficult to remain calm in a flight.

By blogging about the issue, I am unrestraining myself from thinking just about anything that could happen to a flight.

I said, okay, let's face it...read anything you can about flight accidents, air crashes, about flight security, aircraft maintenance, how a feather-less giant iron and fibre can fly, and whatnots. You can't run away from a flight so why don't you just turn back and face your demon!

So, I am flying today for about 50 minutes, that is -- long enough to scare me, hell, even a 25-minute flight from Kota Kinabalu to Labuan can scare the shit out of me! Wish me luck, will you?

All-Female Crew To Take To The Sky

2005-09-14T18:27:00.000+08:00

An all-female crew -- save for one -- will take on to the sky on Tuesday, Sept 20, according to a report on Singapore news channel, Channel NewsAsia. I say, why not, for a change, eh? Would I be concerned if I were to be on that flight? I guess being concerned is a forgone conclusion. Aviophobics would still be concerned no matter who piloted an aircraft.

Here's what pilots -- and their co-pilots -- can do to help flight-scare people to remain calm during a flight: go on air every now and then, not just after the aircraft reach the cruising height and the minutes before descending.

Airlines Blacklisted

2005-09-12T14:09:00.000+08:00

Several European countries have blacklisted over a dozen of airlines companies, citing safety concern. There was also a proposal for a common list of airlines being blacklisted from flying to European destinations but recent reports indicated that this is not going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, individual countries are going ahead with issuing their own list.

France and Belgium had already done so while Switzerland said it will, shortly. More on this here.

Soaring Higher: Understanding A Lift

2005-09-08T04:38:00.000+08:00

The Bernoulli's Principle

Wright's plane

Biggest aircraft, the Airbus A380

To be updated...it's 4.51am and I need to catch some sleep. See you in a few hours...in the meantime, feel free to leave a message, will you?

UPDATE: Now, it's time for the update after more than 24 hours and not the few hours as promised -- moral of the story: sleepy people should not make promises. I should strive to be more dedicated in maintaining this blog. And thank you legendarychipmunk and wong for the message.

The reason the Bernoulli's principle is in this entry is because back in school we were taught that an airplane lifts because of the dynamics between speed and pressure. The greater the speed, the lower the pressure and therefore the plane lifts.

That has been the way I described a lift. Today, I realised that was not entirely it.

According to this site, the issue of a lift should not be principled based on Bernoulli's theory alone. "There is nothing wrong with the Bernoulli principle, or with the statement that the air goes faster over the top of the wing," said David Anderson of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Scott Eberhardt of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington. However, there are other dynamics at work when a plane lifts, they said. Newton's is one of them.

But I would not go into disucssing the article, lest I second-guess what both experts are saying and be on the wrong side again. You can read the interesting article "How Airplanes Fly: A Physical Description of Lift" yourself.

Afraid To Fly? Carry A Parachute!

2005-09-07T06:49:00.000+08:00

Those who are aviophobic or have fear of flying must carry a parachut everywhere and insist that they be seated next to the emergency exit!

10 Tops For The Fearful Flier: Expert advice on how to keep calm
By James Wysong, Travel columnist

How many times have you boarded a flight and noticed one or two passengers who are acting a bit peculiar? You might pass it off as stressful flight conditions or dissatisfaction with the airline, but they could be suffering from fear of flying. It becomes more evident as takeoff approaches. The wide-eyes, clenched fists, profuse sweating, and rocking motions are among its symptoms. The rest of the article here!

I guess I have not come to that stage of flight fright as yet -- I don't sweat profusely, my eyes don't go wide. In my case, the fear is perhaps still manageable.

I had a friend who has a company doing event managements back in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. A hard working person, he dreamt of making it big one day. Jugding from his determination to succeed, I had no doubt he will able to achieve his dream, if only he can overcome one big hurdle, one that can be summarised in my conversation with him as follows:

Him: I had thought of going to KL and see some people there. Here in Sabah, the opportunity for this kind of business is very limited.
Me: True, things do happen in KL. Look at those big guys there...
Him: My problem is I fear flying. Two and a half hours of flying, man, I could die up there!

A Lot Of Airlines Flying Ageing Aircraft

2005-09-06T03:18:00.000+08:00

This is probably one of the reasons why I can't seem to be able to sooth my fear of flying -- that airline companies keep on using their old aircraft to transport people. If a car can break down mid-way, it's not impossible that aircraft can, in mid-air.

But unlike in road accidents, you can't go by the roadside and flag another for help in mid-air, you know that. There aren't many two ways about a plane crash -- you either die or die.

Aviation people say there are many more people who died in road accidents than in plane crashes. True. But there are also many more people who survive car crashes. What airlines can do to help aviophobic people like me to come to term with their "irrational fear of flying" is to be transparent -- service record of aircrafts must be made available to the passangers!

Financial Times online has this article, "Indonesian airliner crash highlights safety fears". Excerpt:

[...] When the Indonesian government bought 10 Boeing 737s from German carrier Lufthansa in 1994 for $90m (€72m, £49m), media reports were blunt in their assessment of what Jakarta was getting: the aircraft were universally described as either “ageing” or “surplus”.

But with the fatal crash on Monday of one of those aircraft one of two 737-200s given by the government of strongman Suharto to military-owned Mandala Airlines as part of a 1990s plan to boost Indonesia's airline industry the cynical assessments that accompanied the deal have yielded a grisly epilogue.

Indonesian officials said on Monday night that the cause of the crash remained unclear, with a spokesman for Mandala telling Reuters only that the initial assessment was that the aircraft had suffered “a take-off failure”.

The crash highlights what analysts say are growing safety concerns in Indonesia, where a rapidly expanding domestic air market in recent years has yielded a surge in both the number of new low-cost airlines and their financial problems.

Earlier this year the United Nations banned staff in East Timor from flying [...] (Source: Financial Times online)

In the meantime South African authorities are still investigating Saturday's helicopter crash at Richard Bay port.

Over 100 Feared Dead In Indonesia's Worst Air Disaster

2005-09-05T15:12:00.000+08:00

Over 100 people are feared dead when a Mandala Airlines Boeing 737 flight crashed minutes after taking off from Medan Airport in Indonesia this morning. Update from Reuters:

MEDAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - At least 100 people are feared dead after a Boeing 737-200 crashed in the center of Indonesia's third biggest city on Monday just after takeoff, breaking into pieces and setting fire to homes and cars.
The plane, operated by local carrier Mandala Airlines, had 112 passengers and five crew on board, said Asril Tanjung, the airline's director. The cause of the crash in Medan city was being investigated, but foul play was highly unlikely, he said.

The plane slammed into the heart of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, sparking widespread panic, witnesses said. Hospital officials and witnesses said some of the dead were residents on the ground.

Edi Sofyan, a spokesman for the North Sumatra government, said there were no reports yet of any survivors. He added that the governor of the province was on board the flight.

"I expect the death toll to be around 100," said Sofyan.

Fierce flames licked at the wreckage as it lay on one of Medan's main roads. Cars and homes were also on fire and plumes of thick black smoke rose into the air as fire crews tried to extinguish the blazes. [...]

Geez!

Near Tragedy At Beijing Airport

2005-09-05T14:32:00.000+08:00

A refuelling truck rammed a plane in Beijing Airport, AFP reports today.

BEIJING, Sept 5 (AFP) -- Beijing International Airport was lucky to avoid tragedy after a refuelling truck rammed a plane in one of two accidents at Chinese airports over the weekend, state press reported Monday.

The fuel truck hit a Finnair jet bound for Helsinki after refuelling it on Saturday, becoming lodged under the plane's wing, the China Daily said.

The newspaper described the situation as "tense" as frantic maintenance staff were forced to pump out eight tonnes of petrol from the plane and deflate the truck's tires to release it.

All 287 passengers on board were evacuated and no injuries were reported.Another scare occurred in the northern city of Xian where a cargo wagon slammed into a China Eastern Airlines plane late on Friday, perforating its fuselage, the report said.Nearly 100 passengers were transferred to another flight. (c) AFP

Geez! *Wipe sweat from the forehead*.

Ignorance Is Bliss?

2005-09-04T07:51:00.000+08:00

I had refrained from reading anything about plane crashes thinking that the lesser I know about how plane could crash, the easier it is to deal with flight-scare. You can't be afraid of what you don't know, so goes my reasoning.

But the fear of flying does not seemed to go away. Perhaps I should do it the other way around -- to know as much as possible not only about what could go wrong during a flight, but also what security or safety measures aircraft makers put in place to deal with situations.

Aviophobia, Aviotophobia, Aerophobia

2005-09-04T07:32:00.000+08:00

I googled the blogosphere to see if there are blogs that referenced Aviophobia or Aviotophobia or Aerophobia. Apparently there aren't many aviophobic bloggers out there. Here's how it fares on Technorati search.

Helicopter Crashes In Sarawak, Killing Three Russians

2005-09-04T07:04:00.000+08:00

Yet another helicopter crash occurs in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, Saturday:

A logging helicopter crashed in Kapit Division, bursting into flames and killing three Russian nationals on board during heavy rain at about 3pm Saturday.

Kapit OCPD DSP Johar Ahmad, when contacted, confirmed the incident and said that investigation into the crash had begun.

The helicopter, of the KAMOV KA-32 model, was believed to be involved in winching logs to be transferred to waiting lorries which would remove them to the logging camp. (Source: Bernama)

This is the fifth crashes in the state this year, killing some 20 people. A Sarawak minister was quoted previously that he was now thinking twice before boarding a helicopter. That makes two of us, Mr Minister!

Flight Security and Flight Safety

2005-09-02T22:11:00.000+08:00

What if, what if, what if...

Here are some aviation links that might be useful:

Flight safety manual

What can be learned from previous plane accidents

Some aviation news from www.landing.com

If you are a reporter, here's a useful resources for covering crashes

Here is another link that discusses about travel safety and security, about pregnant flying policy in the Americas, Eurpoe, Africa and Asia Pacific. Also touches issues of children traveling alone or what is usually termed as UMs or unaccompanied minors. The link also has an article that discusses issues facing people like who has flight phobias. Here's an excerpt:

You Are Not Alone!
Many people develop fears as they mature and life seems more precious, while others may have experienced a bad flight.
You may have a strong imagination, recently began a family, or feel a need to be in control. Young mothers often feel protective and nervous flying with their kids or babies. Regardless of how fears develop, those who suffer can experience sleepless nights, elevated anxiety, and fear of panic attacks.
Friends and family often don't understand the problems caused by a fear of flying.

Afraid To Fly

2005-09-02T07:33:00.000+08:00

I am afraid to fly. I hope by blogging on this I can banish my ghost! Here I shall try to document issues about flight scare from the point of view of a man who is afraid of flying but nevertheless had to fly frequently.

Let's start with the definition. Anyone in the know what is the phobiatic term for someone who is afraid to fly?

UPDATE SEPT 2: Ah, it's called Aviophobia. Wikipedia has a an extensive explaination of the syndrome. It also listed among the notable people who suffer from it, including: Isaac Asimov, Dennis Bergkamp, Doris Day, The Dalai Lama, David Eddings, Aretha Franklin, Jackie Gleason, Jackie Jensen, Kim Jong-Il, Stanley Kubrick, Li Ao, Loretta Lynn, John Madden, Alan Price, Matthew Sweet, Billy Bob Thornton, Agnetha Fältskog, Wayne Coyne and Lars von Trier.