Not everybody gets over their fear of flying, says an instructor at an airport class in the US city of Phoenix, adding that the idea is to learn to deal with fear, rather than seek to avoid it or dominate it by sheer will.

Captain Ron Nielsen, who has been leading classes for 27 years, says often half the people who sign up for the free, four-hour s "fear of flying" sessions at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport are no-shows.

"You stand a really good chance [of overcoming fear of flying] because you showed up,” he told a group.

Fearful fliers can be afflicted by one or several different factors, including fears of sudden mechanical failure or terrorism, phobias of enclosed or crowded spaces, or heights or strange noises, and even the fear of embarrassing oneself in front of others.

Nielsen estimates as many as a quarter of his passengers during his 16,000 hours at the controls probably suffered from fear of flying to some degree.

After the classroom session, the group filed aboard a parked Southwest Airlines plane, where they were shown the cockpit and then sat about the cabin asking more questions.

The youngest was 10-year-old Tyler Speckhals. He has never flown - but he is not keen, said his mom, Sara Blake.

"He's very scientific," she said. "I think it will help, to have how it all works explained by people with lots of experience."

When Nielsen asked, "Who believes planes are the safest form of travel?" only Tyler, clad in a Stars Wars T-shirt, raised his hand.

'GET ON THE DAMN PLANE'

Nielsen scoffs at TV interviewers' frequent requests for "three tips" to help someone get over their fear.

"It's complicated, you all know that," he told the group. "Every one of you out there has a different thought process by which you scare the bejeezus out of yourself, and you'll find a process to get over it."

A Reuters/IPSOS poll last week showed Americans now fear pilots purposely crashing an airliner as much as they are afraid of a hijacking.

Nielsen advised fearful fliers to stay away from rolling TV coverage of crashes, and instead read only dry, factual National Transportation Safety Board reports.

"Anxiety is a growth industry in the world," he said. "Don't fall into that. Don't stay glued to the news."

Sitting in the class to support his sister, Susan Rivera, was Tom Raasch, a burly 45-year-old senior investigator at Wal-Mart.

He travels a lot for work, and once unsuccessfully spent $5,000 on virtual reality flight simulators to try to conquer his own fear.

Raasch met Nielsen eight years ago and credits his success flying since then on the pilot's coaching and advanced classes, during which Nielsen takes participants on a short return flight for lunch in California.

Raasch and Rivera plan to fly to her daughter's May wedding in Hawaii.

"The anxiety never really goes away," Raasch said. "You just learn a skill set to deal with it. ... I get anxiety the night before, but then I just get on the damn plane." – Reuters