During the end of January, video footage of plane crashes and accidents spread from news outlet to news outlet. The January 29 crash over the Potomac River between a commercial plane and a military helicopter killed all 67 passengers according to CBS. Then, according to NBC 10, on January 31 in Northeast Philadelphia, a Jet Rescue Air Ambulance carrying six people crashed and killed seven with one victim being in his car. These stories make nervous fliers even more anxious and confirm the worst fears of the over 25 million adults who have aerophobia or suffer from an acute fear of flying, as the Cleveland Clinic reports.

Dickinson students come from 43 different states and represent 44 different countries, meaning at least some of the 2,100 students need to fly from campus and back. This prompted our question of why does the fear of flying exist and how will these accidents impact college students?

Professor of Psychology at Dickinson Marie Helweg-Larsen spoke to The Dickinsonian about her research in social psychology and expertise in risk perception. In the case of the fear of flying, she pointed out that when people in general assess risk, “we are more guided by how we feel than how we think.” One case being the fear of flying versus the fear of driving. According to USA Facts while flying has a lower fatality rate than driving, more people fear flying . In instances like this, Helweg-Larsen noted that, “We are more concerned about stories than statistics.”

Secondly, Helweg-Larsen brought up the availability heuristic. This concept, according to APA, is the mental shortcut of making a judgement of the likelihood of an event based on how easily one can recall instances of that event. She refered to it by saying, “We pay a lot more attention to events with a lot of media coverage.” The plane crashes were covered extensively by multiple media outlets. In addition, the news covered a lot about the tragedy of the deaths of ice skaters on the plane and their families. Helweg-Larsen explained the reasoning of that coverage by saying, “Stories are hot, statistics are cold.” So even though it is extremely safe to fly (over 45000 planes land safely in the U.S. every day), we are more influenced by the stories of victims than statistics showing that flying is uneventful most of the time

The Dickinsonian also had the chance to interview two Dickinson students: Andrew Nicholas ’28 and Evan Nicholas ’28. Both said they fly “4-5 times per year.” They also discussed their fears. For Andrew, the risk of flying “comes in my mind before every flight.” Evan, on the other hand, said he gets anxious “not every flight but most flights.” When answering whether the plane crash incident would change their mind to fly, they both said, “We won’t stay here because of flight risks.”

While it may seem surprising that people are willing to take a flight after recent crash incidents, Helweg-Larsen explained that “people do become more worried about a risk when they hear about victims, but they adjust pretty quickly assuming no one knows anyone from the flight” and that “College students are certainly adaptable.” This makes sense considering that these type of catestrophic plane accidents are statistically rare, so not many people would know someone in a crash. 

So, whenever there is a plane crash with extensive coverage, it is important to consider the rarity of these accidents. Helweg-Larsen lastly noted that, “we should be relieved we have investigations into the causes of accidents… this is what makes flying safer.”