The recent horrendous disaster of AI171 Dreamliner plane crash at Ahmedabad can trigger vicarious mental trauma on relatives and flyers, highlighting the intense emotional impact associated with aviation accidents. Exposure to this kind of national tragedy can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It can also result in depression, anxiety, and prolonged grief on family members on board. Symptoms of PTSD may include nightmares and flashbacks to the event, trouble sleeping and feelings of isolation and guilt.
Even those who are not directly affected can feel anxious, restless or avoid travel. The constant exposure to news, crash visuals, and graphic updates causes psychological overload.
Aviation disasters like these bring people into a state of emotional shock. This is the immediate impact phase of a disaster , families are stunned, shocked, and numb.
THE SUPPORT
Psychological support to families who lost their lives in the crash should extend beyond the site of the crash. For relatives located in other parts of the country, the state must ensure counsellors are dispatched to their homes.
The scary images of the Air India plane that crashed killing on board passengers is likely to escalate anxiety among many who have an intense fear of flying, called aerophobia or aviophobia. News of a plane crash can be certainly triggering for people with aerophobia. It reinforces an already heightened sense of vulnerability.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology -2024 research report indicated that the risk of dying from commercial air travel was 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally. This was measured in the 2018 to 2022 period.
Even though flying remains statistically one of the safest forms of travel, people with this phobia often struggle with a perceived lack of control, fear of enclosed spaces, or catastrophic thinking , believing that the worst-case scenario will happen to them.
Observers note that when a crash makes headlines, it can feel like proof that their fear is justified. This feeling persists even if the event is incredibly rare.
(Naresh Purohit is Executive Member- Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine, Advisor-National Mental Health Programme. The views expressed are that of the author.)
