If you were aerophobic before last week's American Airlines plane crash in New York, you may feel like you never want to go near an airport again. For some people, especially those who were already fearful of flying, it was all too much on top of the Twin Towers attack. Add to that the SAS disaster in Milan a few weeks ago and the Concorde crash last year and air travel safety is not a problem we can jokingly pin on the Aeroflots or Myanma Airways of this world. It happens in our world too.

I couldn't help laughing at a presentation two weeks ago where the boss of Thomson Holidays claimed that in times of madness, travellers like to stick to reassuring household names. Hello? Wakey, wakey! It was because the terrorists took hold of two of the biggest names in aviation, American Airlines and United Airlines which we are expected to trust, that so many people's confidence in flying has been shaken. We now realise no terrorist is going to attack Bloggs Travel if they want to hit the headlines. At times like these, you start to realise why flying involves so many bizarre rituals designed to calm passenger nerves.

It's not for nothing they serve bloody marys and play lift music before take off. Before last week's tragedy, doctor's surgeries had seen an increase in people terrified of flying asking for prescriptions of Diazepam to tranquillise them through the ordeal. One friend said drugs were the only way she could get through the seven-hour flight to NY for her sister's wedding; and another, an American who was here during 11 September, needed a prescription to get her home again.

I used to be a nervous flyer, especially after watching a television programme about crashes which said the highest chances of disaster are during take-off and landing. And I've never felt calm about child seatbelts for a baby on your knee after the gruesome ending that befell the child who flew off its mother's lap and died in the plane crash in the film Fearless starring Jeff Bridges.

I also used to be unnerved if I sat near the wings. Looking out of the cockpit window you get a close-up of a patchwork of metal, nuts and bolts madly shaking. For this reason I always ask for an aisle seat. Yes, the view is less interesting, but if the plane decided to nosedive I wouldn't have a bird's eye view of it. One of the many horrifying images from last week's crash was from the victim who called home on his mobile and described the wing and even his pet dog (who had been travelling in the hold) shooting past the window.

Despite all the paranoia, I'm still up for flying. Time after time you hear that you are statistically more likely to die in a car crash than a plane, which doesn't help if you're nervous of motorways. Every time I see a pile-up on the motorway, I feel more frightened than when I'm waiting for an aircraft to take off.

I'm not as fearful of flying as I used to be. My cure was of the short, sharp shock variety. The plane was about to land in Los Angeles. A huge explosion occurred, the skies around the windows went silver. A second explosion shook the whole aircraft. I ducked my head and waited for it to plunge to earth. I was convinced a bomb had gone off.

Minutes later we were told we had been struck by lightning. Having survived that has made me an optimistic flyer.