Even frequent fliers sometimes get afraid to fly
— -- Frequent flier John DiScala says his heart began to race and his stomach turned when he heard that a US Airways plane had plunged into the Hudson River in January.
After learning everyone on board survived, his eyes welled with tears.
The US Airways "Miracle on the Hudson" was a frightening reminder to DiScala of two emergency landings he was involved in within nine days two years ago.
"The cabin got really quiet" in both incidents, he says, and "I had a knot in my stomach."
Although most flights are uneventful and air crashes are extremely rare, many frequent business travelers can recall when something went wrong in the air and they feared the worst. Some say it left an unforgettable impression and scared them away from their next flight.
Fear-of-flying expert Tom Bunn says it's not surprising that DiScala and others who've had a close call are affected on a subsequent flight or when they hear of incidents like the one in the Hudson.
Many fliers protect themselves from anxiety by believing "nothing bad can happen to them," says Bunn, a retired pilot who runs a website, fearofflying.com, for nervous fliers. But after a close call, he says, they realize "they're not invulnerable."
Another former pilot, Ron Nielsen, says people who fly frequently without fear can be changed by "one bad experience" or by reading of an accident.
"It triggers the flow of neurons in the brain and makes them anxious or nervous," says Nielsen, who also has a website, fearlessflight.com.
Some travelers and the incidents that have left their hearts pounding or minds racing:
'Recent crashes spook me'
DiScala, 39, says that he was on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale on March 11, 2007, when several passengers and flight attendants smelled smoke in the cabin about an hour after takeoff.
The plane diverted to Tucson, where it landed safely but was met by eight fire trucks, says DiScala, a Los Angeles travel writer known as Johnny Jet on his website, JohnnyJet.com.
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