A fear of flying can be “embarrassing" for some but it can often be cured through an understanding of how planes work, a retired Air Corps pilot has said.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Byrne said it would actually take flying daily for 10,000 years before you could be statistically sure “of being killed on a plane”.

A fear of flying is estimated to affect 10% of people worldwide and can be a hindrance to those who have family or friends living abroad.

On The Pat Kenny Show today, Mr Byrne said most flying fears are caused by a lack of knowledge.

“There are procedures the public doesn’t know about and it has got worse since we locked the cockpit doors after 9/11,” he said.

“People don’t know the procedures for taking off or landing, what noises mean, and that doesn’t help the fear of flying.

“2023 was actually the safest year in the history of commercial flying.”

A JetBlue plane inflight. Image: Lukas Wunderlich / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Byrne said planes undergo rigorous testing.

“All these aircraft, before they go flying, are put in static testing and bent to about 150% of what they should do,” he said.

“They will then know what exactly the metal breaks at and how many hours they can fly before that happens, and then they work backward from that.

“The metal in these planes is designed to bend, they’re going to have a lifetime of around 20 years and are designed to withstand an awful lot of stress.

“Aircraft have even glided as much as 90 miles with no power and landed safety: It’s not easy to do and shouldn’t be done - but it can happen."

Extreme fear

Mr Byrne will never forget one person he came across who had a fear of flying.

“It was a senior civil servant on a morning flight to Brussels and it happened after the aircraft hit turbulence over England,” he said.

“The captain said to strap in and the man called down the cabin crew and shouted ‘I know too much; we’re going too fast – tell the captain to slow down’.

“We were behind him, three military guys, and we said if that lad jumps up and runs to the cockpit, we’re going to have to hold him down until the landing.

“He was a perfectly normal person; when the system restored itself to safe flying he went back to himself  - but it’s very embarrassing.”

Cures

Mr Byrne said it is possible to be cured of flying fears.

“There are courses available, one is fearofflying.ie and the second flyfearless.ie, and they would have about a 90% success rate in curing people,” he said.

“What they do is try and demystify the noises, they explain how it works.

“You’re brought into a simulator and discussing it with pilots, cabin crew, and that sort of thing.

“A tiny percentage of people will never be cured, they leave the course after the first half hour but there’s not much we can do about that.”

Mr Byrne suggested hypnotherapy could work if all else fails.

You can listen back here:

Main image: A plane lands at Leeds Bradford Airport. Image: Danny Lawson/ Alamy.