Okay, I am putting it out there: I had (have) 'em. Sometime after that ValuJet Flight 592 took a nose-dive into the Everglades I began having them when I flew. Can't say when exactly. It came to my attention years later, as a matter of fact.
I was totally unaware I was having them. I actually had convinced myself that an airplane's cabin pressure took a dip each time a change in altitude occurred, as it so often does. I also convinced myself that I was just hypersensitive to cabin pressure change, and that I should not feel worried if I looked at the other passengers' faces and they didn't seem to feel what I was feeling. So I was able to avoid the whole panic attack issue entirely by making up a scenario that wasn't real. My specialty.
My point is that once, on a particularly innocuous flight it was revealed to me by JMB that what I was experiencing was NOT cabin pressure change but rather hyperventilation (in his usual 'talking her down from a bad acid trip' voice he instructed me to breathe into and out of the vomit bag) and I was able to confront my fear (kinda) and act on it. Today I can (mostly) fly without a nerve pill and/or a vodka tonic if I put my mind to it.
So on this day in history, you can imagine my interest perking up when I saw the front page of the NYT where a story describes an actual jet that mysteriously developed a gigantic hole in its underbelly, a.k.a. fuselage.
And I quote:
Passengers described a loud bang and the emergency oxygen masks deploying in the cabin before the plane, a Boeing 747-400, started a controlled descent to a lower altitude and changed course for Manila.
“There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into” the first class area “and the oxygen masks dropped down," a passenger, Dr. June Kane, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp from Manila.
“Just forward of the wing, there’s a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said. "It’s about two meters by four meters and there’s baggage hanging out so you assume that there’s a few bags that may have gone missing...“At approximately 29,000 feet, the crew were forced to conduct an emergency descent after a section of the fuselage separated and resulted in a rapid decompression of the cabin,” the safety agency said.
“The crew descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet in accordance with established procedures and diverted the aircraft to Manila where a safe landing was carried out. The aircraft taxied to the terminal unassisted, where the passengers and crew disembarked. There were no reported injuries.”
If you get a chance today to view a passenger-made video on CNN.com of said plane's cabin, I would say it probably worth doing. I am astounded at the amount of calm people in the video. I would hazard a guess it may end up on YouTube, should you miss it.
Darned if those masks really DO come down! It's a damned miracle.
Showing posts with label panic attack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label panic attack. Show all posts
7.25.2008
On panic attacks and how sometimes your bags go missing when you fly
Okay, I am putting it out there: I had (have) 'em. Sometime after that ValuJet Flight 592 took a nose-dive into the Everglades I began having them when I flew. Can't say when exactly. It came to my attention years later, as a matter of fact.
I was totally unaware I was having them. I actually had convinced myself that an airplane's cabin pressure took a dip each time a change in altitude occurred, as it so often does. I also convinced myself that I was just hypersensitive to cabin pressure change, and that I should not feel worried if I looked at the other passengers' faces and they didn't seem to feel what I was feeling. So I was able to avoid the whole panic attack issue entirely by making up a scenario that wasn't real. My specialty.
My point is that once, on a particularly innocuous flight it was revealed to me by JMB that what I was experiencing was NOT cabin pressure change but rather hyperventilation (in his usual 'talking her down from a bad acid trip' voice he instructed me to breathe into and out of the vomit bag) and I was able to confront my fear (kinda) and act on it. Today I can (mostly) fly without a nerve pill and/or a vodka tonic if I put my mind to it.
So on this day in history, you can imagine my interest perking up when I saw the front page of the NYT where a story describes an actual jet that mysteriously developed a gigantic hole in its underbelly, a.k.a. fuselage.
And I quote:
Passengers described a loud bang and the emergency oxygen masks deploying in the cabin before the plane, a Boeing 747-400, started a controlled descent to a lower altitude and changed course for Manila.
“There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into” the first class area “and the oxygen masks dropped down," a passenger, Dr. June Kane, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp from Manila.
“Just forward of the wing, there’s a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody," she said. "It’s about two meters by four meters and there’s baggage hanging out so you assume that there’s a few bags that may have gone missing...“At approximately 29,000 feet, the crew were forced to conduct an emergency descent after a section of the fuselage separated and resulted in a rapid decompression of the cabin,” the safety agency said.
“The crew descended the aircraft to 10,000 feet in accordance with established procedures and diverted the aircraft to Manila where a safe landing was carried out. The aircraft taxied to the terminal unassisted, where the passengers and crew disembarked. There were no reported injuries.”
If you get a chance today to view a passenger-made video on CNN.com of said plane's cabin, I would say it probably worth doing. I am astounded at the amount of calm people in the video. I would hazard a guess it may end up on YouTube, should you miss it.
Darned if those masks really DO come down! It's a damned miracle.
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