George Bernard Shaw once famously said, “It’s both optimists and pessimists that contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, and the pessimist invents the parachute.” Some people are happy to fly but others are complete pessimists who would rather be knocked out with a wooden mallet and strapped up in the cargo hold than sit on a plane. Some of the most surprising people are celebrities. You would think with their jet-set lifestyles and amazing luck that they would have a fear like this. Some have been known to take out flying insurance and life insurance because they are so afraid, and in their minds if you have both then nothing bad will happen. Others scream and grab on to the people next to them. Here are some celebrities who have a real fear of flying.
Jennifer Aniston
It might surprise people that Jennifer has a fear of flying that is so bad she probably has flying insurance. It has gotten so hard over the years that she was forced to stand up during the safety video and admit her fear. The flight attendants on her flight were so lovely and kept checking in on her. She has probably taken out life insurance too because she is afraid of crashing. She has been known to have a few drinks before she boards a plane but it never helps. We hope her life insurance covers her liver as wel because she flies a lot! Her fear of flying started when she flew through an electrical storm from Canada to New York. She has also said that take-off scare her the most because she can’t understand how the plane gets into the air.
Megan Fox
We can just imagine the conversation that happened when Megan meet her insurance broker one day. “I’d like flying insurance and life insurance for when I travel. I don’t think I’ll need them because I listen to Britney Spears when I fly, and it isn’t my destiny to die listening to Britney.” Yep, Megan listens to Britney to calm her down when she boards a plane and has said the destiny part to Perez Hilton. Megan started taking panic attacks on planes when she was 20 years old and has developed a fear since then. Now she listens to music because she believes she won’t crash while Britney sings. But Megan is known for being a pretty anxious person at the best of times. Either that or she saw the price of the flying insurance premium since she became a big star. Ouch! Hopefully she doesn’t change the words to “Oops I did again” to something else. “Oops no plane crash again”?
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi was unfortunate enough to see a mid-air collision over 30 years ago. Since then she has had a real fear of flying. No matter what Whoopi has been offered over the years, whether it is flying insurance, life insurance or even a course in flying, it has done nothing to lift her fear. Regardless of what type of insurances you have, when faced with something like that, it’s difficult to make that step on to the plane. What scared her the most was the fact that the people on the planes were probably aware that they were in danger and could do nothing about it. Whoopi is going to have to get over it all soon when the stage version of Sister Act travels around the globe. Until recently she has travelled across America in a bus with two drivers. She can travel coast to coast in 23 hours.
Ben Affleck
Ben has suffered from a fear of flying for years. He probably started considered taking out some kind of insurance after a plane he was on nearly crashed. When Ben was 9 years old he was flying alone and his plane was stuck by lightning. One of the engines caught on fire and the plane had to make an emergency landing. But the horror for young Ben didn’t end there. He had just watched a scary movie about child molesters before the flight. As the plane was landing, the guy next to him said that they would probably be put in a hotel. But it was ok, young Ben could stay with him. Yeah Ben, if that is the case and you had a probable child molester there, we don’ blame you for being petrified of flying.
Shailene Woodley
It’s a pilot’s license that this girl is after because being a passenger isn’t good enough for her. Shailene has become more and more afraid of flying as time has gone on. Her main fear is not flying, but the fact that the plane might crash and she could die, and there is nothing that she can do about it. It could be just a control issue because she now wants to learn to fly. She hopes that some flying lessons will help her get control of her fear rather than taking out a big life insurance policy in case she does crash and die. She hopes that it will trick her brain so that she won’t be so afraid. Having her pilot’s license will also mean that is something did go wrong, she would be trained to deal with a flying emergency. We could see the Divergent star taking the wheel of an airplane in an emergency.
Travis Barker
He is probably one of the few celebrities that has a reason to be scared of flying, and no amount of life insurance or flying insurance is going to fix it for Travis. In 2008 Travis was in a plane crash which killed four other people. Two of his best friends were killed and he suffered from 2nd and 3rd degree burns. He survived the crash with his friend Adam Goldstein and neither of them recovered from the tragic accident. Adam suffered survivor’s guilt and died of an accidental overdose a year after the crash. The plane had a tire blow out and the pilot was attempting a rejected take off when the plane crashed and burst into flames. Since then Travis has used boats for his travelling but hopes to get over the fear one day and take his kids to Australia. He has even claimed that they can knock him out on the plane just to get him there without a meltdown.
Colin Farrell
Colin might have played the parts of some of the bravest or scariest men in Hollywood but he really hates flying. They say that you should take out some kind of insurance before you fly, just in case something happens. But if anyone should take out the insurances it should be the flight staff! Colin has had plenty of meltdowns while he has been flying. He has been so bad that he was nearly arrested and put in handcuffs during a British Airways flight. He considers flying unnatural and has developed a hatred, not just a phobia. He has tried many different things over the years to stop him from going nuts. He has tried drinking and medication. But the only thing he can’t insure himself against is the press leaking the stories. Colin has admitted that his behavior on flights over the years has been messy and he is surprised that more stories haven’t been leaked.
William Shatner
He has boldly gone where no man has gone before, but that was a closed set. William might have played the part of Captain Kirk on Star Trek and faced the final frontier of space but that was an act. In real life William is afraid of flying. He doesn’t even like to travel on airplanes, never mind space ships. This bold statement was made by Richard Branson after William turned down his chance to fly on Virgin Galactic. Despite being known for his space ventures, William reportedly said that he would only do it if Richard paid him. Maybe Williams’s life insurance has lapsed because he demanded a large sum of money to risk his life on the flight after Richard couldn’t guarantee anyone’s safety. But there was a rumor that Richard only offered William the place because of the name of the first craft, the VSS Enterprise.
Aretha Franklin
Aretha has one of the most famous fears of flying after she turned down an audience with the Queen of England. Her fear started in 1984 for no reason and has never got over it. There has been no amount of reassurances, insurances or rewards that has coaxed her on to a plane so far. She had planned on taking part in a fearless flyers course but missed part of it. She has planned recently to go back and get over her fear because she wants to travel to England to perform for the first time in 30 years. One of the perks of not flying has been her custom bus which she travels around the country in. When she feels like it, the bus can pull over for a bite to eat, something that you can’t do at 30,000 feet.
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten has had a fear of flying for as long as she can remember. She thinks that she is afraid of the noise of the plane. When she is travelling now she uses noise cancelling headphones to try and get over that initial anxiety. She tries to cancel out the noise of the plane to stop her from freaking out and keeps them on for takeoff and landing. But it’s not just flying that scares Kirsten, she is afraid of airplanes. This might explain why she likes the headphones, to her sitting in a plane must be like sitting in the belly of the beast! We can’t imagine how scary it must be for someone who has to travel a lot for work, to get on a craft that frightens the heck out of them. Poor Kirsten!
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer is so afraid of flying, she spends the first 10 minutes of her flight listening to the engine, waiting for something to go wrong. She is probably one of those people that takes out flight insurance in the hope that her flight is cancelled. She knows all too well how bad she is. When it comes to travel, she becomes superstitious and kisses the plane before she gets on a flight. She says that she is normally a realist when it comes to things so we imagine she has her affairs and life insurance in order if she is so afraid of flying. She has also admitted that her fear might just be more than that, it could be a phobia which she needs to get help with. She considered taking a sleeping pill for flying but worried that, if she did and there was an actual emergency, she would be useless and drugged.
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock needs a good life insurance policy for some of the scraps she has gotten herself into over the years while filming. She is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood and her box office smashes have hit record figures. When she done the movies Speed and Speed 2, we all thought she was a fearless woman. Sure, she was taking on terrorists from the safety of a movie set but those stunts looked scary. One thing that Sandra had not done until her recent movie Gravity, was play a part that portrays air travel of any kind because of her fear of flying. Her fear is so bad it has been described by some as a “deathly fear”. In 2000 Sandra was involved in a plane crash when her plane left the runway during takeoff and crashed. When she was starting to film Gravity, she thought she would have to go on “the vomit comet” to do the weightless scenes. Can you get flying insurance for the vomit comet?
Sean Bean
Sean has played some of the most feared people on screen. He has been a Bond Villain, part of the Lord of the Rings, and even had a brief part in a Game of Thrones. He has admitted that his fear of flying comes from his parents and has rubbed off on him. When he was filming Lord of the Rings in New Zealand he wouldn’t get into the helicopter with the rest of the cast. He actually chose to hike up the mountain side rather than be brave and sit in the chopper. The entire cast was made to wait on him climbing up the mountain to join them. When he is at home in England, he drives across Europe to any film location rather than fly. Let’s face it, most of his characters have suffered tragic endings, so we don’t really blame him for being on edge.
