'Fear of flying' on the rise for Malaysians, says psychologist

Malaysians are increasingly afraid of getting onto an airplane with a growing number of cases of people suffering from pteromerhanophobia, or 'fear of flying’.

According to Prof Madya Dr Mariani Mohd Noor, this is especially more apparent following incidents such as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 aircraft.

“The 17-day wait to find out the fate of the aircraft was actually filled with positivity and hope.

“But when the reverse occurred, people lost hope and are beginning to feel afraid,” Dr Mariani told Astro AWANI.

This fear is further increased with other airline incidents that have occurred this month, including the case of an Malindo Air aircraft catching fire, Wednesday morning.

Dr Mariana said that people who experience such fear would possess a higher than normal imagination and would likely imagine unlikely scenarios if one gets on an aircraft.

She added that the impact for such a person is that they cannot use the service of a plane even for a long-distance journey, and would rather use land transport.

Among the ways to overcome this fear, she said, was for sufferers to be given counseling with the use positive words.

“For children suffering from ‘fear of flying’, usually we will show them interesting photographs such as the environment in an airplane, food that is being served, as well as the location of where the plane will arrive at.

“As for adults, we will ask them to accept the situation because such matters are decided by the Almighty,” she said, “we will ask them to always pray, and so on.”

On March 8, the MH370 MAS flight which was scheduled to arrive in Beijing disappeared with 239 people on board from various nationalities.

On March 21, the windows of MAS MH114 was hit by a flock of birds while landing in Nepal, Kathmandu. All 180 passengers and crew were safe.

On March 24, MAS MH066 from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon, Seoul, needed to be diverted to Hong Kong following a generator failure on the aircraft.

This morning, a Malindo Air airplane reportedly caught fire in its left wing during its flight to Kuala Terrengganu.