This story aired in the September 8, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
If your stomach drops at the thought of takeoff or landing, you’re not alone. Nearly 25 million Americans share a fear of flying. Some psychologists say the way through it is to rewire the brain, by gradually facing the very thing that feels dangerous. But you can’t just hop on a plane whenever you want to practice. That’s where a Bay Area program hosted at SFO can help. For nearly 50 years, they’ve been getting uneasy travelers back in the sky.
KALW’s Evan Roberts has the story from five miles up.
TRANSCRIPT:
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: For those of you just joining us, welcome aboard our flight to Seattle. Thanks for being mindful of others while finding your seat.
REPORTER: On a flight to Seattle, a woman in the window seat is fanning herself with the safety manual. Her name is Colette, and she's 23 years old.
JULIE: How are you doing?
COLETTE: Very vulnerable and humiliated by the fact that I require so much attention, yeah.
REPORTER: Colette’s a nervous flyer. Her travel companion, Julie, is a therapist.
JULIE: Remember everything you're feeling right now is not dangerous.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: We are preparing for departure. Please make sure that your seat back and tray tables and tablets holders are all up.
REPORTER: Colette leans her head against the seat in front of her.
COLETTE: Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you.
REPORTER: A string of rosary beads dangles from her fists.
COLETTE: Jesus, I trust in you.
JULIE: Colette?
COLETTE: Mm-hmm?
JULIE: I want you to try to trust in yourself, too. And it makes sense and I understand why, but I want you to practice, if you can, practice a little bit, like “I've got this, I can do hard things. I can feel all this yuckiness and still get through it.” Right?
COLETTE: Yeah.
JULIE: And then you can give yourself a lot of credit when we land because you are doing the work.
REPORTER: As the plane taxis down the runway and accelerates, Colette gives herself a pep talk.
COLETTE: It's okay. It's all right, girl. You're doing such a good job, Colette. You're in control. I'm in charge. I'm the boss. I have God on my side.
REPORTER: Colette is not the only nervous flyer on the plane today. There's Paul in the row in front of her. And Sarah and Katherine are seated on the other side of the aisle.
And today is their graduation flight.
REPORTER: Nearly 50 years ago, two pilots launched the Fear of Flying Clinic. Now it’s a non-profit. Volunteer therapists and aviation experts run a four-day session for clients from across California.
Sound of clinic on the first day
REPORTER: On day one, nine participants meet in the Reflection Room at San Francisco International Airport. It has comfy chairs and big windows that overlook a row of boarding gates with planes arriving and departing.
JODY YARBOROUGH: Hey everybody. Welcome!
REPORTER: Board President Jody Yarborough is a former nervous flyer herself. She went through the clinic in 2014 and has volunteered since then.
JODY: And now here we are. And I think one of the most important things is: here you are. So congratulate yourself on taking another step in facing your fears about flying.
REPORTER: The clinic is rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy…
PAULA ZIMMERMAN: So I'm gonna ask you to introduce yourselves.
REPORTER: ...led today by psychotherapist Paula Zimmerman.
PAULA: So, tell us what it is that concerns you about flying. Steven, why don't we start with you?
REPORTER: Many of the people here say they’ve experienced anxiety and panic attacks. One person in their 70s stopped flying after a harrowing rescue mission in the Vietnam War. One was in a bad earthquake as a kid, and turbulence reignited their panic. Another– at 53– had never even been on an airplane.
PAULA: OK, Alright thank you Paul. Alright, Colette.
COLETTE: Hi, uh, I brought my mom with me today…
REPORTER: Colette just graduated college, and she plans on attending nursing school.
COLETTE: I've struggled many years with my fear of flying.
The last flight I took, I flew to North Carolina for my last year of college and on that flight I really struggled. My anxiety was at an all time high. I felt just like this intense feeling inside of myself that made me feel like I was about to die.
And so coming back home I decided, in my stubbornness, like, “Oh no, I'm just gonna drive cross country.” And after that drive I ended up realizing, I need to confront this. And I couldn't let dreadful anxiety control me anymore.
Sound of clinic on the first day
PAULA: Thank you. And Louise?
REPORTER: After introductions, Paula explains she wants participants to understand the difference between adrenaline and real danger, to distinguish between the thing that’s happening to you, and how you think about the thing that’s happening to you.
She writes on a big piece of paper in front of the group:
PAULA: A stands for activating event.
REPORTER: Like turbulence.
PAULA: And this B is for belief.
REPORTER: Let’s say someone believes that turbulence means the pilot has lost control and the plane’s gonna crash.
PAULA: The consequence is… C for consequence.
REPORTER: And a consequence to that could be a panic attack.
PAULA: What am I believing about that experience?
REPORTER: Paula is trying to get these anxious flyers to really analyze their beliefs. If they believe that turbulence means the plane is crashing, then of course they’d be terrified.
But is this belief true?
KEITH KOCH: As long as your seat belt is on, you're perfectly safe in turbulence.
REPORTER: Retired pilot Keith Koch flew commercially for 40 years. Other volunteer instructors include an air route controller, a flight attendant and aircraft maintenance workers.
Keith says he fields questions about turbulence all the time.
KEITH: “Yes, but what if we're moving hundreds of feet?” “No, you might move 10, 20 on a bad day. Up or down.” And they're quite amazed by that. And they said, “Well, how do you know?
REPORTER: The fact is, deaths from turbulence have been very rare. No modern commercial airliner has ever been brought down solely by turbulence.
So, the belief about turbulence is wrong.
PAULA: But, I want to change my language from “Turbulence scares me.” Because that's actually not true. What's my error here?
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: My brain is telling me…
PAULA: Thank you!
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: …that turbulence is…I’m scared of it.
PAULA: Thank you…
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: ..my brain. Turbulence itself is not dangerous.
PAULA: Turbulence can't do this. But, so I will say instead: “I upset myself when there's turbulence. When there's turbulence, I kind of lose it.”
That puts it back on me, which is a good thing because I'm the only one who can change my thinking, right? If I give the power to turbulence, that means every time I'm in a turbulent flight, I scare myself!
REPORTER: Once people realize their belief is distorted, they can reason with it.
PAULA: You're actually biting off a chunk of fear and working through it.
Sound of the clinic on the first day
PAULA: Who makes that adrenaline go up?
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: We do.
PAULA: We do! So we habitually avoid those places that seem to cause the problem. But part of the cure here is to recognize it's not the plane, it is not where I am. It is what I'm thinking about where I am. And those thoughts are making that adrenaline skyrocket in me. And if I'm gonna stop that process, what would I have to do?
COLETTE: You would train yourself to sit through it and not escape it. 'cause every time you leave that situation, you're teaching yourself a repetitive cycle.
PAULA: Yeah, exactly. Am I gonna try to hope that you won't feel that panic?
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: I hope you have a way.
PAULA: (laughs) No, what I'm asking you is, is my goal to keep you from having to panic?
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: No. It's probably not possible.
PAULA: It's the opposite. I want you to have the panic. That sounds terribly cruel of me. I want you to feel the panic ‘cause I want you to feel it and get to the other side. Because I know it won't last.
REPORTER: Colette explains that she’s had panic attacks since she was nine, when she had surgery to remove her gallbladder.
COLETTE: But unfortunately that surgery didn't go as planned, and so I had to deal with several emergency surgeries afterwards. That experience of feeling out of control led to me having issues like not wanting to be in closed spaces. It just kind of led to me being somebody who just didn't really wanna do anything – was too afraid.
REPORTER: As she got older, her panic attacks increased.
COLETTE: I've been taught my whole life the logic that, you know, flying in planes is far safer than driving a vehicle – and I believe it. I think it's that fear of just being trapped. Like, if I'm in a car, right, I can pull over, open my door and get some relief for a minute. But when I'm in a plane, there's no“out.”
REPORTER: Paula tells the group that people have to expose themselves to the very thing they’ve been avoiding, the very thing they think is dangerous, in order to retrain their brains to respond differently. That’s called Exposure Therapy.
PAULA: How are you going to be less afraid of dogs unless you meet a dog? How are you gonna be less afraid of flying unless you get on a plane?
Sound of walking outside on tarmac.
REPORTER: For day two of the clinic, participants meet up at United’s Technical Operations building, just north of SFO. Everyone puts on a bright orange safety vest and Aircraft Maintenance Technician LeRobb Lee escorts them across a huge stretch of tarmac.
LEROBB LEE: We are gonna be walking over to that hangar right there, yes.
REPORTER: We’re walking towards the tail end of a 787 called “The Dreamliner.”
LEROBB: Please be mindful, this aircraft is a tall airplane. There are things on this aircraft that do have sharp edges. Please just keep your head on the swivel.
REPORTER: We break into small groups and walk around this gigantic plane. It's windy and loud, so we have to huddle close to actually hear each other.
LEROBB: All right, let's go here. We'll just, we'll start on this side over here.
REPORTER: But Colette peels off, her hands shoved deep in her pockets.
REPORTER: Can I talk to you?
COLETTE: Sorry, I need a little bit of time. It's okay…
REPORTER: She returns moments later and her mom wraps an arm around her shoulder.
COLETTE: I just, I just needed a minute. What's upsetting is just seeing the doors on the plane and it feels like we're trapped, like thinking that we're gonna actually be inside of that tube, with no way out, is a very upsetting notion to me. But I realize that that's my thoughts. So I, I can't give those power if I really want to be able to board an airplane. I need to realize that, okay, I'm allowing it to intimidate me 'cause that thing itself, the plane, is an object. So it can't intimidate a person. A person can intimidate themselves. It's just an airplane. Airplanes don't harm anybody.
REPORTER: LeRobb wheels a giant metal staircase up to the back entrance– and one by one– the fearful flyers enter the plane to explore.
Sound of the inside of a plane
PAULA: Check out the bathrooms, check out the kitchens. Okay. So you are on your own.
REPORTER: One person looks inside the oven in the rear galley. Another touches the back of each chair as they walk down the aisle. Colette looks out the exit door window, her hands behind her as if she’s walking through a museum.
As Paula corrals the group…
PAULA: Let's settle in. You have your seat belt fastened.
REPORTER: …a volunteer flight attendant cues up all the sounds they might hear over the intercom during a real flight.
PAULA: What do you think about that sound?
REPORTER: Paula leads a deep breathing exercise for the group.
PAULA: Breath out slowly…
Sound of Colette taking a deep breath
REPORTER: And as the group pretends they’re all flying together, she reads aloud an imaginal script. It’s a common tool for exposure therapy, a first person narrative that guides participants through difficult situations so they can rehearse coping responses.
PAULA: Remind yourself of all you have learned about the power behind this plane and the takeoff. You feel the speed. And the strong acceleration. You hear the sounds and your speed increases. Your plane has reached cruising altitude.
Sound of an airplane in flight
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Can I get you something to drink?
COLETTE: Can I have– do you have Sprite or ginger ale?
REPORTER: One week later, the participants are at cruising altitude – for real.
KEITH KOCH: You know the movie Top Gun?
COLETTE: Yes.
KEITH: Talk to me, Goose.
REPORTER: Volunteer instructor Keith Koch checks in with everyone individually. He’s sharply dressed in his pilot’s uniform – a crisp white shirt and tie, a blue blazer and wings pinned near his lapel.
KEITH: This is a real difficult thing. As I tell people all the time, the hardest thing you did was show up on day one. If you show up on day one, there's a really high chance that you're gonna end up on day four right where you are in the scene on an airplane.
COLETTE: I think for a long time I felt hopeless. Like there's just no point in trying anymore. Like people aren't gonna be patient with me. And like, here I am and people are being so gracious with me.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Tray tables up, seat back up. Everything completely under the seat in front of you, please.
REPORTER: As the plane descends, the reality of what she's accomplished begins to dawn on Colette.
COLETTE: I’m, like, so happy. It's like, oh my gosh, I didn't cave! Like I didn't cave and then it just works. Hey Paul, when the plane lands, do you wanna clap and cheer? That's usually what happens.
PAUL: We should, right?
COLETTE: Okay. I think that's what we should do.
JULIE: Pass it down.
COLETTE: Yeah. Pass it down to everybody.
REPORTER: Colette looks out her window as the ground gets closer and closer.
COLETTE: Look at us. We're gonna land!
Sound of the plane landing and everyone claps and cheers.
COLETTE: Good job, Paul! You did it.
EVERYONE: Good job! Woo!
JULIE: People on the fight are probably like, “Geez, we just landed. Like, what's the big deal?”
FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Welcome to Seattle. The local time is 11:08 AM.
CLINIC PARTICIPANT: Can you guys come with me each time though? (laughs)
REPORTER: As the plane taxis on the runway, Colette calls her mom.
COLETTE: Hey mom, it's Colette. You'll never guess where I'm located. I’m so proud of myself.
REPORTER: In the Seattle airport, the group eats lunch at a Chinese restaurant where they all get fortune cookies. On the flight back to SFO later that day, Colette opens hers. Her fortune says: “You will travel to many exotic places in the next few years.”
She says she’s already booked a flight to go to her best friend's wedding in North Carolina later this year.
