After air travel scares, survivors grapple with flying again.

Passengers alive after plane crashes beat fear, fly again

Survivors of air accidents often proclaim that their survival was a miracle.

But what follows is another kind of miracle: Many survivors manage to get past the horror and onto planes again. How do they do it?

It’s a question facing survivors of this week’s Southwest Airlines accident, which killed one woman.

Authorities said 148 passengers walked away from Southwest Flight 1380, underscoring an important point: Plane crashes are rare, but when they happen, people often survive them.

Between 1983 and 2000, 95.7 percent of people involved in commercial airline accidents survived, according to government data.

Dave Sanderson was the last passenger to exit US Airways Flight 1549 after its emergency landing in the Hudson River in January 2009. The next day he had to make a decision: Could he fly back home to North Carolina?

“If you don’t get back immediately, you may never get back on that plane,” said Sanderson, who now travels around the country giving inspirational speeches.

Sanderson makes it a habit to talk to the crew when he boards a plane. He also learns about the plane, including the exit strategy and what kind of doors it has.

Others lean on faith. Helen Young Hayes survived the 1989 United Airlines crash in Sioux City, Iowa, which killed 111 people. Hayes, a lifelong Catholic, closed her eyes and prayed as the plane went down; later, as she recovered from her burns, she thought a lot about why her life was spared.

Hayes started flying again about two months after the crash, confident that God would hold her whatever the outcome of the flight. She has since flown more than 1 million miles.

Hayes says survivors need to take time to heal. But she also sees the crash as a gift that helped her find a higher purpose for her life.

Jennifer Stansberry Miller, a clinical social worker and crisis consultant, has been an advocate for survivors since her brother died in a plane crash in 1994. She says every survivor must find his or her own way. Some have trouble eating and sleeping and may need professional guidance. Others use apps that talk passengers through flying or forecast the amount of turbulence they might encounter.

Others take classes at airports that help people master their fears. Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport offers a $200, five-session class that culminates with a short commercial flight.