In-Air Emergencies Can Cause Lasting Trauma

Last January, Shandi Brewer boarded an Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, California, on her way to celebrate her grandmother’s birthday. She was sitting in the 11th row, between her father and a stranger. Shortly after takeoff, Brewer and other passengers heard a loud bang. She was unable to see that one of the doors on the plane 15 rows behind her had been blown off, exposing passengers to the open air at 16,000 feet.

Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and passengers began praying. She thought they would clash. When the plane made an emergency landing in Oregon, Brewer hugged her father with one arm and the stranger with the other, hoping to take a video and say goodbye to her mother.

Nearly 11 months later, Brewer, now 30, said the mental anguish caused by the midair panic that lasted less than 20 minutes is an injury in itself. ” Brewer has been seeing a therapist and practicing breathing techniques, but he still has occasional nightmares of being in a helicopter with no doors or frames, clutching onto the seat to keep it from flying off into the sky. . She also gets irritated by loud noises. On Independence Day, the sound of fireworks caused her to feel “extreme panic” and had to hide indoors.

“There’s always a cloud over me reminding me that I could die at any moment,” she said.

When people discuss their fear of flying, they often remind them that flying is very safe. According to 2022 Analysis A study on civil aviation safety conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reported that “there has been a significant and sustained decline in U.S. aviation accidents over the past 20 years.” The analysis found that flight safety was “improved by more than 40 times.”

But to a mind that cannot stop replaying upsetting events, statistics are of little importance, especially when an alarming emergency continues. make news. “Many people become extremely anxious after these events,” said Rebecca B. Skolnick, a clinical psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s not just something that happens to them, it’s something that shapes the way they think about the world, especially flight,” she said.

Brewer and more than 30 other passengers on the Alaska Airlines flight were cited for “objective physical symptoms including severe stress, anxiety, trauma, physical pain, flashbacks, fear of flying, and insomnia.” They are suing airlines and aircraft manufacturer Boeing. , PTSD, hearing loss, and other injuries. ” According to the complaint, one of the plaintiffs, like Brewer, believed the plane was going to crash and wrote the following text message to her mother: I love you. “