«I had to go to Madrid for work, so I had no choice but to get on the plane.

I say I had no choice because I am afraid of planes.

But just before the doors closed, I went into a loop…. 

OK, I get on the plane, get through the drink and arrive in Madrid, but to return home I’ll have to take another plane by force…

And I was blocked.

A major panic attack. 

All I wanted was to get off that plane. 

So I went straight to the crew at the door and told them: 

I get off the plane because I’m scared to death. 

A crisis committee was formed at the finger, just in front of the aircraft door. 

We were there discussing with the people who had to separate the finger, the flight attendants, and at one point the pilot, Antonio, also appeared.

I didn’t know whether to faint because of the panic attack or because of how good the pilot was.

No, really. 

I was having a terrible time.

Antonio, the pilot, saw me at the height of my panic attack: sitting on the ground and crying uncontrollably, and he said to me….

Are you afraid? Look, come to the cockpit. If you fly with us you will never be afraid again. 

What scares me the most is the take-off.

So I told him that I was getting on the plane (because I had to get to Madrid), but that I didn’t want to see the take-off.

I got through the journey as best I could, and about 15 minutes before landing a stewardess came:

You are invited to land in the cockpit with Antonio and the co-pilot.

This time I did go, and I have to say it was beautiful. 

Really.

As a passenger, what I thought at the time was that they and I have completely opposite characters.

Because while I am unable to rationally filter my fear, they do a job that demands tremendous precision, rationality and lucidity. 

And I thought all this because as the plane was descending, we went through a cloud, and you couldn’t see anything, but they were completely dominating the situation, I could see they were super-confident. 

Even without seeing anything. 

And for me the absurdity is that I have a terrible fear, because I don’t trust the human race when it comes to flying. 

Because the aircraft is after all in the hands of a human being.

But I saw them with a mastery that made them extremely reliable. 

To tell you the truth, I don’t know if the fear of flying has gone away for good. But at least I landed in Madrid calmly and I managed to come back much calmer.»