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Cloudy Skies? Airport Clinic Grounds Anxiety
Psychiatrist Claudio Plá, left, and Jorge Albanese led Veronica Taussag through a program and prescribed medication to ease her fear of flying.
(By Silvina Frydlewsky -- For The Washington Post)
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Those preventative services, of course, aren't free. For an hour-long consultation, Plá charges $70. The full eight-hour course runs $250.
In the terminal, Poder Volar attracts passers-by with a flat-screen television that continuously broadcasts overviews of its programs. The results of a poll of 800 travelers in Argentina are displayed on a large banner: About 23 percent reported a fear of flying, and 14 percent said they normally become afraid during times of turbulence. The most common forms of combating those fears are listed as prayer, self-medication, dependence on a flight companion and the consumption of alcohol.
Plá's philosophy is that the more people know about flying, the less they'll fear it. Jorge Albanese, a retired pilot from the Argentine airline Austral works in the clinic, trying to reassure clients that flying is not nearly as dangerous as they might think.
"The most common questions I get are whether turbulence can cause a plane to crash, or if a plane can be affected by something like lightning," said Albanese, 62, who retired two years ago after a 27-year career. "People are very aware of the different sounds they hear in the various stages of flight, like the sound the engine makes during a change in altitude. If that sound suddenly goes silent, a lot of people think the engines have shut off and they start fearing that the plane is going to fall."
The clinic's staff members recite statistics that suggest the chances of dying in an air disaster is one in 11 million, and repeat the oft-used adage that flying is the safest mode of travel. But the patients are not so easily convinced. The staff puts much of the blame on movies, television and the print media. Nadia Caracciolo, who works for the clinic, pulled a recent copy of the arts section of a local newspaper. The cover featured a story about a documentary released in Argentina that criticizes the Argentine air force for corruption in enforcing commercial aviation. Also opening in local theaters was the movie "Flight 93."
"We can spend a year working on programs teaching people that flights are safe, and one front page like this and it's forgotten in two minutes," Caracciolo said.
Before her flight, Taussag recalled what she had been told: visualize a successful flight, breathe deeply, eat carbohydrates before the flight and candies on board to help calm anxiety.
"Right now," she said just before heading to her gate, "I feel fine."
