Fear of flying? Stop watching Air Crash Investigation.

If you have a fear of flying, there is a good chance you have watched Air Crash Investigation.

Maybe you've also gone down the YouTube rabbit hole. Plane crash videos. Accident documentaries. Cockpit recordings. Aviation disaster channels. Detailed explanations of everything that went wrong.

The reason usually sounds perfectly logical.

"If I understand what can go wrong, I'll know what to expect. And if I know enough, I'll feel more prepared."

Unfortunately, fear doesn't usually work that way.

As a Purser with more than 14,000 flight hours, I understand the fascination with aviation. I also understand why someone with a fear of flying starts looking for information. Flying involves something most of us cannot fully control. You sit down, the doors close, and within minutes you are thousands of metres above the ground.

So your mind starts searching. What happens if there is turbulence? What was that sound?

What can go wrong during take-off?

And before long, you're watching an episode of Air Crash Investigation to find the answer.

The problem is that these programmes are designed to focus on the most dramatic and unusual events in aviation. That's what makes them interesting television. Nobody is going to make a 45-minute documentary about the thousands of flights that landed safely and uneventfully that day.

Your brain, however, doesn't make that distinction quite as easily.

Every dramatic image, sound and story can become another association connected to flying. You may consciously understand that an accident was extremely rare, happened years ago, or involved a unique chain of events. Yet your emotional response can still remember the images.

This is where many people with a fear of flying get stuck.

They keep collecting information, hoping that one final answer will make them feel ready to fly.

Then they arrive at the airport with plenty of knowledge about aviation and still feel their heart rate rise.

Because knowing more and feeling safe are two very different experiences.

Fear of flying involves an automatic alarm response in the brain. The amygdala plays an important role in detecting potential danger and preparing the body to respond. When that alarm system has learned to associate flying with danger, information alone does not always switch it off.

You can understand that turbulence is normal and still feel tense when the aircraft starts moving.

You can know how incredibly rare serious aviation incidents are and still feel panic during take-off.

You can even work in aviation, fly regularly, and still experience an automatic fear response in certain situations.

The work, therefore, goes beyond collecting more facts.

It involves changing the way your brain and body respond to the experience of flying. Learning to recognize the fear response. Creating new associations. Training calm responses before and during the moments that previously triggered anxiety.

That is also the approach behind Fly Calm Academy.

Of course, understanding aviation can be helpful. Knowledge has its place. But there comes a point where another documentary, another YouTube video or another search for "what happens if..." simply adds more material to an already anxious mind.

So if you have a fear of flying, my advice is simple.

Stop watching Air Crash Investigation.

Stop watching plane crash compilations on YouTube.

Stop feeding your fear with aviation disasters disguised as preparation.

Instead, start focusing on what happens inside you when you think about flying.

That is where real change begins.

Fly Calm Academy is designed to help you understand and work with that automatic fear response, so you can gradually approach flying with more calm, confidence and freedom.